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Abstract— An iterative pilot-symbol aided modulation (PSAM) systems have been proposed by Sandell et al. [6] and Valenti et
channel estimation approach is proposed for vertical Bell Lab- al. [7]. Since the iterative channel estimators (ICEs) in [6], [7]
oratories layered space-time (V-BLAST) orthogonal frequency are intended for SISO systems, they have the drawback that the
division multiplexing systems operating on frequency-selective
fading channels. Since the signals at the receive antennas are the interference from other transmit antennas cannot be removed
superposition of signals from multiple transmit antennas, accu- when applied to V-BLAST OFDM systems. Furthermore,
rate channel estimates are crucial for good error performance. since the channel estimation error due to interference between
Furthermore, the time selectivity of the fading channels leads to layers in V-BLAST is proportional to the number of transmit
inter-carrier interference (ICI). While ICI can be ignored for slow antennas, the ICE should account for its own estimation error
fading channels, it should be mitigated for fast fading channels.
This paper proposes an ICI mitigation scheme for time-varying to avoid interference enhancement.
channels. We also propose an iterative channel estimator with This paper proposes an ICE for MPSK V-BLAST OFDM
low-complexity. Simulation results demonstrate the usefulness of systems operating on frequency-selective fading channels. Our
the proposed algorithm on frequency-selective fading channels. approach uses correlations that depend not only on the channel
Index Terms— Adaptive estimation, interference suppression, statistics but also on the a priori information of the transmitted
iterative methods, MIMO systems, parameter estimation, Wiener symbols. Thus, the proposed ICE is more general than the
filtering. approach in [7], and has an inherent interference cancelling
ability [8]. Furthermore, the proposed ICE is shown to be
I. I NTRODUCTION robust on fast fading channels, and significantly improves
the bit error rate (BER) performance when compared to
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66 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS, VOL. 7, NO. 1, JANUARY 2008
Y1 (n, k) (Pilot)
X1 (n, k)
(1,1) ûm
hn (k; l) −1 1
ENC F −1 F DEC
um c̃l1 cl1 (nr ,1)
Channel
1
hn (k; l) λ(cl1 )
.. .. Estimator
. . (ICI λe (c̃l1 )
.. .. OFDM ..
. . Mitigation) .
Mod.
&
Ynr (n, k)
Xnt (n, k) MMSE
(nt ,1) λ(clnt )
hn (k; l) Detector ûm
−1
−1 nt
ENC F F DEC
(n ,n )
um
nt
hn t r (k; l)
c̃lnt clnt
λe (c̃lnt )
(Pilot) Mapper
Mapper
(M)
where F̃ = I M ⊗ F (⊗ denotes the Kronecker in the OFDM time-frequency lattice are pt OFDM symbols
product), I M is an M × M identity matrix, [F ]p,q = in the time direction and pf sub-carriers in the frequency
√1 exp{−j2πpq/K}, p, q = 0, 1, · · · , K − 1, and [A]p,q is direction. The transmitted OFDM symbols that contain pilot
K
the (p, q)-th element of matrix A. After appending a length-G sub-carriers have the form
cyclic prefix (CP), the nt OFDM symbols are applied to their
respective transmit antennas for transmission. At the receiver, X j (αl ) = [P j , Xj (αl , nt ), · · · , Xj (αl , pf − 1), P j ,
after removing the CP and applying the FFT to y(n), the (pf −nt ) symbols
received signal vector at epoch n is · · · , Xj (αl , K − 1)]T , (5)
Es
Y (n) = H(n)X(n) + W (n), (2) where αl = l · pt , l = 0, 1, · · · , Nt − 1, Nt = N/pt is the
nt
number of OFDM symbols that contain pilot sub-carriers in
(nr )
where W (n) = F̃ w(n) is a zero-mean complex Gaussian a block of N OFDM symbols, and P j is an nt -dimensional
random vector with covariance matrix N0 I nr K . The channel row vector in which all elements are zero except for the jth
matrix H(n) is given by element which has complex value Pj .
⎡ ⎤
H (1,1) (n) · · · H (1,nt ) (n)
⎢ .. .. .. ⎥
H(n) = ⎣ . . . ⎦, (3) III. C HANNEL E STIMATION
(nr ,1) (nr ,nt )
H (n) · · · H (n) An ICE can be implemented by calculating tentative channel
estimates based on both a priori information of the transmitted
where H (i,j) (n) ∈ C K×K , i = 1, · · · , nr and j = 1, · · · , nt ,
signals and the initial channel estimates, which are calculated
whose elements are given by
as described in Section III-A. Furthermore, channel fading
[H (i,j) (n)]p,q induces ICI [9], [10]. The ICI can be neglected for slow fading
⎧ K−1 L−1 channels, meaning that the off-diagonal elements of H (i,j) (n)
⎪ (i,j)
⎪ 1
⎪ hn (m; l)e−j2πpl/K p = q (p = q in (4)) are small. However, the ICI cannot be ignored
⎪
⎨ m=0 l=0
K
= L−1
K−1 (i,j) , (4) for fast fading channels. Under such conditions, the ICI must
1
⎪
⎪ h (m; l)· be mitigated in the channel estimation process as described
⎪ m=0 l=0 n
⎪
K
⎩ in Section IV. Without loss of generality, we will derive
e−j2π(p−q)m/K e−j2πql/K p= q
our ICE for slow fading channels. However, for fast fading
(i,j)
where hn (m; l) = h(i,j) (n(K + G) + m; l) is the lth tap channels, the proposed ICE can be similarly implemented
(L ≤ G) of the channel between the jth transmit antenna after ICI mitigation. In our approach, we require the following
and ith receive antenna at epoch m of the nth OFDM assumptions:
symbol. Note that the diagonal and off-diagonal elements of 1) The transmitted symbols are statistically independent
H (i,j) (n) correspond to the desired signal and the undesired and of equal energy, i.e.,
ICI, respectively. E[X(n)X H (n)] = I nt K and |Xj (n, k)|2 = 1.
2) The second order statistics of the channels are avail-
A. Pilot Structure able at the receiver.
In the proposed system, pilot symbols are transmitted on 3) The channels are spatially uncorrelated, i.e.,
(i,j) (i ,j )∗
distinct sub-carriers for each transmit antenna, while zeros are E[hn (k; l)hn (k ; l)] = R̄(k−k ; l)δi−i δj−j .
transmitted on the sub-carriers that are reserved to transmit pi- 4) The lth and l th channel taps are uncorrelated, i.e.,
(i,j) (i,j)∗
lot symbols from other antennas. The pilot sub-carrier spacings E[hn (k; l)hn (k ; l )] = R̄(k − k ; l)δl−l .
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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS, VOL. 7, NO. 1, JANUARY 2008 67
(i,j)
H̃ (n, k) = [H̃ (i,j) (n + P, k + Q), · · ·, H̃ (i,j) (n + P, k − Q), · · ·, H̃ (i,j) (n − P, k + Q), · · ·, H̃ (i,j) (n − P, k − Q)]T(15)
(q) (q−1)
A. Conventional PSAM Channel Estimator where Z j (n, k) and X̂ j (n, k) are given in the top of
(q−1)
Based on the channel estimator in [4] and an assumed this page where j = 1, · · · , nt , and Ĥ (n, k) is the nr ×
separability of the channel correlation function in time and nt estimated channel matrix for the kth sub-carrier at epoch
frequency [11], nt ×nr conventional PSAM channel estimators (q−1)
n and the (q − 1)th iteration. Vector X̂ j (n, k) is the a
can be implemented to produce the initial channel estimates. priori information vector of the symbols transmitted from all
For brevity, only the channel estimator in frequency direction transmit antennas, except for the jth transmit antenna at the
is described here. First, define the tentative channel estimate (q − 1)th iteration. Hereafter, for mathematical convenience,
vector we drop the subscript (q).
To calculate the nr × nt refined channel estimates at the
V (i,j) (αl ) = [V (i,j) (αl , j), V (i,j) (αl , pf + j), · · · ,
kth sub-carrier and epoch n, assume that the previous channel
V (i,j) (αl , (Nf − 1)pf + j)]T , (6)
estimate Ĥ(n, k) is perfect. Then, the residual received signal
(i,j)
where V (n, k) = Pj∗ (n, k)Yi (n, k),
Pj (n, k) is the known associated with the jth transmit and the ith receive antenna,
pilot symbol, and Nf = K/pf is the number of pilot sub- which is the ith element of Z j (n, k) in (11), is given by
carriers in an OFDM symbol that contains pilot sub-carriers. E s
After simple manipulation, the PSAM channel estimate for the Zi,j (n, k) = H i (n, k)[X (n, k) − X̂ j (n, k)] + Wi (n, k),
nt
kth sub-carrier at epoch αl is given by (14)
(i,j) (i,j)
Ĥ (αl , k) = cH
j V (αl ), (7) where H i (n, k) is the ith row vector of H(n, k) and i =
where the weighting vector cj is given by [12] 1, · · · , nr . Define a soft tentative channel estimate vector
associated with the jth transmit antenna and the ith receive
cj = R−1 r j . (8) antenna as (15), which is given in the top of this page,
(i,j)
The autocorrelation matrix R and the crosscorrelation vector where H̃ (i,j) (n, k) = X̂j∗ (n, k)Zi,j (n, k) and H̃ (n, k) ∈
r j in (8) are given by (P̄ Q̄)×1
C with P̄ = 2P + 1 and Q̄ = 2Q + 1, where P̄ and
Q̄ are interpolation orders in time and frequency directions,
R = E[V (1,1) (αl )V (1,1)H (αl )] (9a)
respectively. Then, the refined channel estimate Ĥ (i,j) (n, k)
(i,j) (i,j)∗
r j = E[V (αl )H (n, k)], (9b) can be expressed as the linear interpolation [12]
respectively, where the H (i,j) (n, k) are the principal diago-
(i,j)
nal elements of H (i,j) (n) (p = q in (4)). Since the pilot Ĥ (i,j) (n, k) = M (i,j)H (n, k)H̃ (n, k), (16)
symbol spacing is same for all transmit and receive antenna
pairs, the autocorrelation matrix in (9a) is identical for all where M j (n, k) ∈ C (P̄ Q̄)×1 . From orthogonality principles,
pairs i, j, where j = 1, · · · , nt , i = 1, · · · , nr . However, the matrix M (i,j) (n, k) satisfies
the crosscorrelation vectors in (9b) are distinct, because the (i,j)
M opt (n, k) = [R(i,j) (n, k)]−1 r(i,j) (n, k), (17)
pilot symbol positions are distinct for the different transmit
antennas. Hence, the weighting vector cj is distinct for each where the autocorrelation matrix and crosscorrelation vector
transmit antenna. are given by
(a) (i,j) (i,j)H
R(i,j) (n, k) = Rj (n, k) = E[H̃ (n, k)H̃ (n, k)]
B. Two-Dimensional Iterative Channel Estimator
(18a)
From (2), the received signal for the kth sub-carrier at epoch (a) (i,j)
(i,j) (i,j)∗
n is defined as r (n, k) = rj (n, k) = E[H̃ (n, k)H (n, k)],
Es (18b)
Y (n, k) = H(n, k)X(n, k) + W (n, k), (10)
nt (a)
respectively. Note that = comes from the fact that the
where X(n, k) ∈ C nt , Y (n, k) ∈ C nr , and H(n, k) ∈ channels associated with all transmit and receive antenna pairs
C nr ×nt . We now proceed to calculate the channel estimate are uncorrelated and statistically identical. Before calculating
vector associated with the jth transmit antenna. The residual (18), the a priori covariance matrix is first evaluated
received signal vector associated with the jth transmit antenna H
and the kth sub-carrier at epoch n and the qth iteration is Φj (r − r , s − s ) = E[X̃ j (n + r, k + s)X̃ j (n + r , k + s )],
(19)
(q) Es (q−1) (q−1)
Z j (n, k) = Y (n, k) − Ĥ (n, k)X̂ j (n, k),
nt where X̃ j (n, k) = X(n, k) − X̂ j (n, k), |r|, |r | ≤ P ,
(11) and |s|, |s | ≤ Q. Since the elements in X(n, k) are all
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68 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS, VOL. 7, NO. 1, JANUARY 2008
⎧
⎪
⎪ 1 − |X̂j (n + r, n + s)|2 m = j, r = r and s = s
⎨
1 m = j, r = r and s = s
[Φj (r − r , s − s )]m,m = , (20)
⎪
⎪ 0 m = j, r = r or s = s
⎩
X̂j (n + r, n + s)X̂j∗ (n + r , n + s ) m = j, r = r or s = s
L−1 IV. ICI M ITIGATION T ECHNIQUES
· σl2 e−j2π(s−s )l/K , (22) Perfect channel knowledge is necessary to cancel the ICI.
l=0 However, since perfect CSI is never available, the ICI cannot
where fd,max is the maximum Doppler frequency, T is the be completely removed. For this reason, we propose to use a
time-domain sample period, Ts = (K + G)T , and 2-D filter to mitigate the ICI. The received signal vector Y (n) in
isotropic scattering is assumed. The elements of the cross- (2) is
correlation vector in (18b) are
Es
Y (n) = [ H d (n)X(n) + H o (n)X(n)] + W (n),
rj (r, s) = |X̂j (n + r, k + s)|2 · R̄(r, s). (23) nt
desired signal ICI
(25)
C. Low-Complexity Iterative Channel Estimator
The computational complexity of the two-dimensional ICE where Y (n) = [Y T1 (n), Y T2 (n) · · · , Y Tnr (n)]T and
is prohibitive, thus motivating our LC-ICE. In the two- Y i (n) = [Yi (n, 0), · · · , Yi (n, K − 1)]T . The second term
dimensional ICE, unreliable a priori information from the in (25) is the ICI due to channel time variations. To mitigate
channel decoder results in channel estimation errors. For this the ICI, we generate the weighted vector
reason, we propose an LC-ICE that orders the (P̄ Q̄) coordi-
Y̌ (n) = B H (n)Y (n), (26)
nates of the ICE and uses only the most reliable positions
to generate the channel estimates. To implement the LC-ICE, where B(n) ∈ C nr K×nr K . By orthogonality principles, the
we exploit not only the correlation coefficient, but also the a optimal weight B opt (n) is
priori information. Define a weight indicator function (WIF)
as B opt (n) = [E{Y (n)Y H (n)}]−1 E{Y (n){H d (n)X(n)}H }.
nt (27)
ξ(αQ̄ + β) = |R̄(r, s)|2 |X̂j (n − r, k − s)|2 , (24)
Since it is assumed that all channels are uncorrelated and
statistically identical, the term E{Y i (n)Y H
j=1
i (n)} in (27) is
where α = r + P , β = s + Q, (|r| ≤ P , |s| ≤ Q), and R̄(r, s)
Gi i = i
is given by (22). Then, we order the WIF with ξ(i0 ) ≥ ξ(i1 ) ≥ E{Y i (n)Y H i (n)} = , (28)
0K×K otherwise
· · · ≥ ξ(iLth ) ≥ · · · ≥ ξ(iP̄ Q̄−1 ), where il = 0, 1, · · · , P̄ Q̄ −
1. We use the a priori information corresponding to the first where Gi is a K × K matrix. The elements of matrix Gi
Lth < P̄ Q̄ positions (with indices l = 0, 1, · · · , Lth − 1) to become (29), which is given in top of the next page, where p =
estimate the channel for the kth sub-carrier at epoch n. By 0, · · · , K−1. The term E{Y (n){H d (n)X(n)}H } in (27) can
using these Lth positions, the LC-ICE can be implemented in be similarly derived. Then, the optimal weight B opt (n) can
a fashion similar to the ICE. be rewritten as (30), which is given in the top of the next page,
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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS, VOL. 7, NO. 1, JANUARY 2008 69
Es
K−1 K−1 K−1 L−1
E [Yi (n, r + p)Yi∗ (n, r)] = 2
R̄(k − k ; l)ej2π(m−r)(k−k )/K e−j2πpk/K + N0 δp = (Es + N0 )δp , (29)
K m=0 k=0 k =0 l=0
Es t n
(1,j)H (n ,j)H
B opt (n) = Bdiag[E(H (1,j) (n)H d (n)), · · · , E(H (nr ,j) (n)H d r (n))], (30)
nt (Es + N0 ) j=1
1
K−1
J0 (2πfd T (m − m ))e−j2π(p−q)m/K ,(31)
K2 10 -1
m,m =0
where p, q = 0, 1, · · · , K − 1.
NMSE
V. T URBO P ROCESSING WITH A S ERIALLY 10 -2
C ONCATENATED S YSTEM
A. MMSE V-BLAST Detector and Soft-Output Demapper Conventional PSAM, fd,maxTs = 0.04
The output of the MMSE detector is P=Q=1, fd,maxTs = 0.04, 2 Iterations
10 -3 P=Q=2, fd,maxTs = 0.04, 2 Iterations
−1 H
Θ(n, k) = [Ψ(n, k) + ΔI nt ] Ĥ (n, k)Y (n, k), (32) Conventional PSAM, fd,maxTs = 0.09
P=Q=1, fd,maxTs = 0.09, 2 Iterations
where for a zero-forcing detector Ψ(n, k) =
H P=Q=2, fd,maxTs = 0.09, 2 Iterations
Ĥ (n, k)Ĥ(n, k) and [Δ]j,j = N0 /Es + δj , and where
δj results from the imperfect channel estimates in (14). 10 -4
The channel estimation error δj can be calculated from the 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
previous channel estimates, viz., Eb /N0
−1
δj = (nt − 1)[Es − r H
j (n, k)Rj (n, k)r j (n, k)]. (33) Fig. 2. NMSE versus Eb /N0 with various normalized fading rates fd,max Ts
in TU channels when nt = nr = 2.
Given the signals Θ(n, k), the demapper calculates the log-
likelihood ratio (LLR) of the coded bits as
p[Xj (n, k)|Θ(n, k)]
Xj :clj =1
in Fig. 1. We use the maximum squared Euclidean weight
λ(clj ) = log , (34) (MSEW) symbol mapper [13] that provides the best error-
p[Xj (n, k)|Θ(n, k)]
floor performance in the high SNR region. The expectation of
Xj :clj =0
the code bits E[clj ] and the corresponding a priori probabilities
where l = 0, · · · , q − 1 and j = 1, · · · , nt . in (36) are grouped by the mapping rule to yield the a priori
transmitted symbol
B. Channel Decoder and Bit-to-Symbol Mapper
E[Xj (n, k)]= X̂j (n, k) (37)
The LLRs of the coded bits in the channel decoder are
0 q−1
c −1
= T (cj )Pr T (cj = (cj , · · · cj )) ,
n n
p[c̃lj |{λ(c̃lj )}N
l=0 ] cn
j :Xj ∈M
c̃lj =1
c −1
λ(c̃lj |{λ(c̃lj )}N
l=0 ) = log c −1 where M is the MPSK symbol alphabet, T (cnj ) is the symbol
p[c̃lj |{λ(c̃lj )}N
l=0 ]
c̃lj =0 corresponding to cnj , where each element of cnj is given
by (36b). The a priori transmitted symbol in (37) and the
= λa (c̃lj ) + λe (c̃lj ), (35)
estimated channel matrix in (16) are used for the input to the
where λa (c̃lj ) is a priori information on c̃lj , evaluated from ICE in (20), (21), (23), and (24). Assuming that the code bits
(34), and λe (c̃lj ) is extrinsic information, which is used as a are independent,
the a priori
q−1 probability of the transmitted
priori information for the ICE. The a priori probability and symbol is Pr T (cnj ) = i=0 Pr(cnj ).
the expectation of c̃lj are given by [6], [7]
VI. S YSTEM PARAMETERS AND S IMULATION R ESULTS
1 1 c −1
Pr[c̃lj ] = 1 + c̃lj tanh λe [c̃lj |{λ(c̃lj )}N ] ,(36a) In our simulation, typical urban (TU) channels are generated
2 2 l=0
with fd,max Ts = 0.006 through 0.12 [14]. A bandwidth
E[c̃lj ] = tanh(λe (c̃lj )/2), (36b)
of 500 kHz is divided into 64 sub-channels. The symbol
respectively. In case of non-binary modulation the code bits duration is 128 μs, and a 14 μs guard interval is used. A rate-
must be mapped onto the transmitted symbols as shown 1/2 recursive systematic convolutional code with generator
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70 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS, VOL. 7, NO. 1, JANUARY 2008
10 -1 10 -1
Conventional PSAM P=Q=1,2 Iterations, fd,max T s = 0.04
P=Q=1,2 Iterations P=Q=2,2 Iterations, fd,max T s = 0.04
P=Q=2,2 Iterations LC-ICE,2 Iterations, fd,max Ts = 0.04
10 -2 P=0,Q=9,2 Iterations P=Q=1,2 Iterations, fd,max T s = 0.09
P=9,Q=0,2 Iterations
P=Q=2,2 Iterations, fd,max T s = 0.09
10 -2
LC-ICE,2 Iterations, fd,max Ts = 0.09
BER
BER
fd,max Ts = 0.09
10 -3
10 -3
10 -4
nt = nr = 2 nt = nr = 2 fd,max Ts = 0.04
-5 -4
10 10
0.00 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.10 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22
Normalized fading rate (fd,maxTs ) Order (Lth )
Fig. 3. BER versus normalized fading rate fd,max Ts in TU channels at Fig. 4. BER versus order Lth of the LC-ICE with fd,max Ts = 0.04 and
Eb /N0 = 12 dB and nt = nr = 2, where fd,max is the maximum Doppler 0.09 in TU channels when Eb /N0 = 10 dB and nt = nr = 2. For reference,
frequency. Ts is the duration of the extended OFDM symbol. the error performance of the ICE with P = Q = 1 and P = Q = 2 is shown.
10 0
2 × 2 MIMO system. This also results in the error floor at the
Conventional PSAM fifth iteration in the lower BER region.
P=Q=1,2 Iter
P=Q=2,2 Iter
10 -1 P=0,Q=7,2 Iter VII. C ONCLUSIONS
P=0,Q=9,2 Iter
P=7,Q=0,2 Iter
This paper proposed an ICE and LC-ICE that exploits
P=9,Q=0,2 Iter a priori information and the channel correlation statistics.
LC-ICE,Lth =14,2 Iter Simulations have demonstrated that the BER performance
10 -2
of the proposed two-dimensional ICE is at least 2.5 dB
BER
10 -1 R EFERENCES
[1] G. J. Foschini,“Layered space-time architecture for wireless commu-
nication in a fading environment when using multi-element antennas,”
Bell Labs. Tech. J., pp. 41-59, Autumn 1996.
10 -2 [2] T. L. Marzetta, “BLAST training: Estimating channel characteristics for
BER
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