Patent ID: 8238481

Claim:
A receiver apparatus for blind channel estimation, comprising: a channel amplitude estimation circuit adapted to receive a plurality of PSK (phase shift keying) or DPSK (differential phase shift keying) modulated symbols, with each received symbol characterized by an amplitude component, a phase component and associated with a carrier, and wherein said channel amplitude estimation circuit is configured to output a channel amplitude estimate for each carrier based on the amplitude component of the associated received symbol; a channel phase estimation circuit adapted to receive the same plurality of PSK or DPSK modulated symbols received by said channel amplitude estimation circuit, and wherein said channel phase estimation circuit is configured to output a channel phase estimate for each carrier based on the differences between phase components of received symbols associated with adjacent carriers and on a minimum phase difference between any two PSK or DPSK symbols; and a coarse channel estimator coupled to said channel phase estimation circuit and coupled to said channel amplitude estimation circuit, and adapted to output a coarse channel estimate associated with each carrier, wherein the amplitude of the coarse channel estimate equals the channel amplitude estimate for the carrier, and the phase of the coarse channel estimate equals the channel phase estimate for the carrier.