A Fast Gaussian Maximum-likelihood Method for Blind Multichannel Estimation

We propose a blind Maximum-Likelihood method for FIR multichannel estimation, denoted GML. The GML criterion is derived assuming the input symbols as Gaussian random variables. The performance of GML (computed based on the true symbol distribution) is compared through numerical evaluations to the optimally weighted covariance matching method: both methods are equivalent in a certain asymptotic sense. A fast implementation of the scoring algorithm is proposed to solve GML. 1. PROBLEM FORMULATION We consider a single-user multichannel model: this model results from the oversampling of the received signal and/or from reception by multiple antennas. Consider a sequence of symbols a(k) received through m channels of length N and coefficients h(i):