Patent ID: 8649467
Filing Date: 2014-02-11
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A method of multi-symbol channel estimation for estimating channel response to a plurality of transmission symbols within an observation window transmitted through a time-varying channel in a multi-carrier modulation (MCM) system, each of the transmission symbols including a plurality of pilots, said method to be implemented using a channel estimation device that is configured to receive a plurality of receive symbols as a result of transmission of the transmission symbols through the time-varying channel, each of the receive symbols having a plurality of elements, said method comprising the steps of: a) configuring the channel estimation device to obtain a window pilot receive vector according to a part of the elements of each of the receive symbols that correspond to the pilots in a corresponding one of the transmission symbols; b) configuring the channel estimation device to compute a window pilot channel transform matrix based upon the pilots in the transmission symbols; c) configuring the channel estimation device to compute an estimated value of a polynomial coefficient vector based upon the window pilot receive vector obtained in step a) and the window pilot channel transform matrix obtained in step b); and d) for each of the transmission symbols, configuring the channel estimation device to compute a plurality of estimated values of channel response associated with possible transmission paths in the time-varying channel of the MCM system according to the estimated value of the polynomial coefficient vector; wherein step b) includes the following sub-steps of wherein each of the transmission symbols is allocated to a plurality of subcarriers, and, in sub-step b1), the channel estimation device is configured to compute the pilot channel transform matrices based upon where each of the pilot channel transform matrices has a plurality of rows corresponding to positions of the pilots in the transmission symbols, and a plurality of columns corresponding to the transmission paths in the time-varying channel, m is a positive integer ranging from 0 to M−1 and M is a number of the transmission symbols, q is a positive integer ranging from 0 to Q−1 and Q is an order of a polynomial associated with the channel response, ξ and i are equal to 0 to N p −1 and N p is a number of the pilots in each of the transmission symbols, λ is a positive integer ranging from 0 to L−1 and L is a number of the transmission paths in the time-varying channel, B m q (ε, λ) is a matrix element associated with a ξ th row and an λ th column of a q th order pilot channel transform matrix that is associated with an m th one of the transmission symbols, φ m q (p ξ −p i ) is a pilot subcarrier correlation parameter, p i and p ξ are respective positions of the subcarriers allocated with i th and ξ th ones of the pilots, X m (p i ) is an i th one of the pilots in an m th one of the transmission symbols, and ω is a unit complex exponential and is equal to