A method comprising: at a receiver , coarsely correlating a received orthogonal frequency division multiplexed (OFDM) signal against a pilot reference to obtain a coarse channel estimate, the received OFDM signal comprising a distributed pilot signal and an OFDM data signal; coarsely equalizing the received OFDM signal based on the coarse channel estimate; removing the distributed pilot signal from the received OFDM signal after coarsely equalizing to generate a coarse data signal estimate, wherein the removing includes: converting the received OFDM signal to a frequency domain signal having combined components of the pilot signal and the data signal that represent a symmetric combined constellation of clouds of possible states of the combined components, with each cloud in each of four quadrants centered on a possible state of the data signal in the quadrant, such that an average of the possible states in the cloud represents the data signal without the pilot signal; and determining the pilot signal using the average; removing the coarse data signal estimate from the received OFDM signal using the coarse channel estimate to generate a residual pilot signal; correlating the residual pilot signal against the pilot reference to obtain a fine channel estimate; equalizing the received OFDM signal based on the fine channel estimate; and removing the distributed pilot signal from the received OFDM signal after fine equalization to generate a fine data signal estimate from which data is recoverable. at a receiver , coarsely correlating a received orthogonal frequency division multiplexed (OFDM) signal against a pilot reference to obtain a coarse channel estimate, the received OFDM signal comprising a distributed pilot signal and an OFDM data signal; coarsely equalizing the received OFDM signal based on the coarse channel estimate; removing the distributed pilot signal from the received OFDM signal after coarsely equalizing to generate a coarse data signal estimate, wherein the removing includes: converting the received OFDM signal to a frequency domain signal having combined components of the pilot signal and the data signal that represent a symmetric combined constellation of clouds of possible states of the combined components, with each cloud in each of four quadrants centered on a possible state of the data signal in the quadrant, such that an average of the possible states in the cloud represents the data signal without the pilot signal; and determining the pilot signal using the average; converting the received OFDM signal to a frequency domain signal having combined components of the pilot signal and the data signal that represent a symmetric combined constellation of clouds of possible states of the combined components, with each cloud in each of four quadrants centered on a possible state of the data signal in the quadrant, such that an average of the possible states in the cloud represents the data signal without the pilot signal; and determining the pilot signal using the average; removing the coarse data signal estimate from the received OFDM signal using the coarse channel estimate to generate a residual pilot signal; correlating the residual pilot signal against the pilot reference to obtain a fine channel estimate; equalizing the received OFDM signal based on the fine channel estimate; and removing the distributed pilot signal from the received OFDM signal after fine equalization to generate a fine data signal estimate from which data is recoverable. <EOS>