Patent ID: 8494070

Claim:
A method for channel estimation using received reference signal (RS) tones in a mobile communications system, comprising: generating frequency domain response expressions (H) for at least one or more sets of RS tones in a communication channel; derotating H by a complex conjugate of the RS tones; combining the frequency domain response expressions to form a staggered frequency domain response expression (H a,b ) of the one or more sets of RS tones; grouping terms of the staggered frequency domain response expression into desired signals A(f e ) and phase signals B(d,f e ), where f e represents frequency error and d represents a number of chips between RS tones; converting the staggered frequency domain response expression into a time domain expression (h a,b ); generating an error function Z(f e ) from the time domain expression (h a,b ) by applying a cross product between different pairs of RS tone groups (H a,b , H b,c , etc.) and summing terms; estimating a frequency error f e from the error function Z(f e ); and adjusting a discriminator in a mobile device based on the estimated frequency error for enhanced frequency tracking.