Patent ID: 7974350

Claim:
A propagation path estimation apparatus of a receiver in an OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) communication system for performing communication by OFDM, comprising: a CIR estimation unit that estimates a group of impulse responses (CIRs) of propagation paths; a valid-impulse discriminator that selects impulse responses, which are greater than a predetermined threshold value, from the group of impulse responses (CIRs) and substitutes predetermined value for samples other than a prescribed number of samples bracketing a maximum peak in each impulse response selected to generate valid impulse responses; and a propagation path estimation unit that estimates the propagation path using the valid impulse responses, wherein said propagation path estimation unit includes: an acquisition unit that acquires a sinc-function matrix (S matrix) decided based upon a number N of points of an IFFT used in OFDM modulation and number Nc of subcarriers used in actual transmission, and an inverse matrix of the S matrix; a multiplier that multiplies a CIR estimation vector composed of the valid CIRs by the inverse matrix to thereby calculate a propagation-path response vector.