Pilot-symbol-aided channel estimation for OFDM in wireless systems

In this paper, we investigate pilot-symbol-aided parameter estimation for orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems. We first derive a minimum mean-square error (MMSE) pilot-symbol-aided parameter estimator. Then, we discuss a robust implementation of the pilot-symbol-aided estimator that is insensitive to channel statistics. From the simulation results, the required signal-to-noise ratios (SNR’s) for a 10% word error rate (WER) are 6.8 dB and 7.3 dB for the typical urban (TU) channels with 40 Hz and 200 Hz Doppler frequencies, respectively, and they are 8 dB and 8.3 dB for the hilly-terrain (HT) channels with 40 Hz and 200 Hz Doppler frequencies, respectively. Compared with the decision-directed parameter estimator, the pilot-symbolaided estimator is highly robust to Doppler frequency for dispersive fading channels with noise impairment even though it has some performance degradation for systems with lower Doppler frequencies.