Patent ID: 8467478

Claim:
A propagation channel estimation apparatus used in a receiver that receives a signal transmitted from a transmitter through a plurality of paths, the propagation channel estimation apparatus comprising: a path selection unit that selects an estimation target path, which is a path to be used to estimate a propagation channel estimation value, among the plurality of paths that receives the signal transmitted by the transmitter based on a predetermined characteristic value of each path; an estimated reception time determination unit that determines an estimated reception time that is a time at which a signal as a target of estimation of the propagation channel estimation value among signals propagating through the estimation target path is received; an amplitude phase estimation unit that estimates an amplitude and a phase of the signal propagating through the estimation target path at the estimated reception time as a propagation channel estimation value of the estimation target path; and an interpolation/extrapolation processing unit that performs an interpolation/extrapolation process using the propagation channel estimation value of the estimation target path to estimate the propagation channel estimation value at a time other than the estimated reception time of the signal propagating through the estimation target path, wherein the estimated reception time determination unit includes a time change amount detection unit that detects a time change amount between the propagation channel estimation value of each of sample signals included in a previous symbol of the signal propagating through the estimation target path and the propagation channel estimation value of each of the sample signals included in a current symbol of the signal propagating through the estimation target path; a time number determination unit that determines the number of estimated reception times according to a size of the time change amount; and a time final determination unit that determines the estimated reception time by the number of the determined estimated reception times.