2010 International Conference on Communications and Mobile Computing
Channel Estimation in Mobile Wireless Communication
Liang Pu
Graduate School
DaLian Polytechnic University
No.1 Qing Gong Yuan, Ganjingzi Dis., Dalian
116034, China
puliang-13@163.com
1
Abstract—Channel estimation is an important technical
issue in mobile communication system, the performance and
capacity of mobile communication system are directly
influenced by the speed and precision of channel estimation.
This paper introduced the definition and the method
currently existed of channel estimation firstly, and then
proposed a method based on the probability of gain
difference by the feature analysis of mobile wireless fading
channel. This method has the virtue of high speed, low
complexity and strong real time character to environment.
Key words - Channel Estimation; Signal Fading;
Difference; Probability
I. INTRODUCTION
Channels are essential parts of communication
systems. High speed and utilization of frequency spectrum
are requested by the development of wireless
communication. Mobile wireless channel is the most
complex one among all kinds of channels. In reality, the
state of channel is usually unknown, so channel estimation
is highly requested. As is shown in Fig.1, radio waves
propagating in wireless channels are reflected by buildings,
trees and even motorcars. These form multiple
propagation paths. Received waves are divided into three
kinds: direct waves, diffracted waves and reflected waves,
which result to different time delays, phases, amplitudes
and additive noise. It will cause severe fading. [1]
In 3G communication, higher speed of the mobile
station is requested, which means the dynamic range of
channel parameters is large. Thus, coherent reception is
rather difficult, and the channel estimation is the key
technology. The design of algorithm with high efficiency
and low complexity is the foundation of channel
equalization technology, joint detection and smart
antenna.[2] And also it can greatly improve the system
performance.
Channel estimation is a process to get the impulse
response approximation and make it near as soon as
possible in order to compensate. It is affected by different
types of modulation, demodulation and detection. In
communication system, the modulation mode with
varying amplitude is always used in order to increase the
1
This work is supported by Eleventh Five Year Plan of Liaoning
Province Education Science project topics for 2008-No.JG08DB055 &
Colleges and Universities in Liaoning Province Excellent Talents
Support Program-No.2009R05.
* Corresponding author: Zhisen Wang, Male, Professor.
978-0-7695-3989-8/10 $26.00 © 2010 IEEE
DOI 10.1109/CMC.2010.201
Jian Liu, Yuan Fang, Wei Li and Zhisen Wang*
R&D Center of Integrated Measurement and Control
DaLian Polytechnic University
No.1 Qing Gong Yuan, Ganjingzi Dis.,
Dalian 116034, China
* z_s_wang@dlpu.edu.cn
Transmitter
(base station) Receiver
Path loss Shadowing Fading
Local
scatterers
scatterers
distance
Fig.1 Signal fading in mobile communication systems
spectrum efficiency. [3] In this case, the exactly channel
status information should be known first by the receiver
and then coherent demodulated. Channel estimation is
absolutely necessary. Channel frequency response can be
estimated according to the statistic information of
receiving terminal. The position of channel estimation in
mobile communication system is shown in Fig.2.
There are two channel estimation methods about
channel estimation technology. [4] The first is an algorithm
base on training sequence or pilot, [5] it can provide rapid
acquisition as well as accurate tracing. But the
transmission efficiency of channel is lower, the pilot takes
up some place of time slots or bandwidths. And the other
one is blind channel estimation [6] base on the statistical
property of sending signal. It has high transmission
efficiency and particularly can save spectrum resource.
But it requested a long time to save record of data symbols.
In a word, about channel estimation, there have been a
lot of excellent methods existed. Each of them has
advantages and drawbacks. In this paper, a new channel
estimation method is proposed. It is based on the
probability of channel gain difference and has a high
speed virtue.
Fig.2 The position of channel estimation
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 II. PROPOSED ESTIMATION METHOD which result the signal fading. Thus, the effect of it to the
In mobile communication, the fading will be caused signal should be studied mainly.
while the changing distance between receiver and For an input signal s(t), the channel output signal is
transmitter. Through the comparison between the different illustrated as
speed time varying signal power, we called slow fading r ( t ) = s ( t )ξ ( t ) + n ( t ) (4)
and rapid fading.
There are two mainly reasons can be described about n(t) is the channel noise.
the slow fading: The first one is path loss. Radio waves Where the changing rate of the input signal can be
attenuate as the mobile station moves away from the base expressed by
station. "d" is distance from the transmission point, and dt < T s
ds ( t ) ⎧ 0
the received signal power decays in inverse propagation to =⎨
da, "a" is between 3 to 4. The second is shadowing. Due to dt ⎩C T s ≤ dt ≤ 2 T s
(5)
interception and reflection of radio waves by large
buildings that are between the base station and mobile Ts is the code interval of duration. C is const.
station, radio wave energy varies slowly while arriving The changing rate of the channel characteristic can be
around the mobile station. Average received power given by
changes randomly in intervals of several tens to several dξ ( t ) ⎧ 0 dt → 0
hundred meters. If the time varying loss is expressed in =⎨
dt ⎩C else (6)
decibel (dB), it is known that a dB-expressed path loss
varies following the Gaussian distribution with standard And the changing rate of the noise characteristic n(t)
deviation of about 6 to 10[7]. can be shown as
On the other hand, the rapid fading can also be
dn ( t )
described in two aspects: The first one is multipath fading. ≠ 0
dt (7)
In intervals of several to several tens meters, the radio
wave reaching the surroundings of the mobile station is At sending terminal, we send the deterministic signal
reflected and diffracted by neighbouring scatterers (such "1" as pilot signal on a consistent basis, and we can get
as buildings and trees). The interference with each other
makes the received signal power changes rapidly in time r ( t ) = ξ (t ) + n (t ) = ξ (t ) + n (t ) = ξ (t ) (8)
when the mobile station moves. In the urban areas, it is
known that the channel gain can be modeled as the Where r( t ) , ξ ( t ) , n( t ) , ξ ( t ) + n( t ) is respectively the
random process following the Rayleigh distribution. [8] average value of r(t), ξ(t), n(t) and ξ(t)+n(t). The noise n(t)
The second is the Doppler effect. When the mobile station follows the Gaussian distribution with a zero mean.
is moving, there will be several plane waves with the Based on the analysis above, in order to get the
same strength but different phases are arriving at a receive channel characteristic, the signal must be sampled in a
antenna, and the frequency of received signal will change. high speed. And the step is fDT. With a mass of samples,
It is given as an aggregate is obtained. It contains the statistical
f n ,D = V /( C / f c )* cos α characteristic of all sample points and the probability from
(1) one point to the following. This is the prior probability for
Where α and fn,D is the nth arrival direction and its estimation.
Doppler frequency. V is the moving velocity of receive The difference process is illustrated in Fig.3. First, we
antenna. C is velocity of light. fc is the carrier frequency. can get the amplitudes of every fDT (A, B, C, D…) by a
Observe the time variations in the signal amplitude, fading simulator. Then, the slope (K1, K2, K3…) between
we know that the channel characteristic is depended by one point and the following are obtained. Thus, there are
the carrier frequency fc and the moving velocity V. 1000 slopes known in intervals of 1000 steps (If the
The received signal can be represented by number of samples is 1000). This is the aggregate
containing the prior probability of channel fading curve.
⎡N A ⎤ Because the happened probability of every slope is equal,
s r ( t ) = Re ⎢∑ exp j( 2πf c t + ψ ( t ) + 2πf D t cos θ n + φn )⎥
⎣ n =1 N ⎦ the calculation is easy. And the curvilinear path depends
= Re[ξ ( t ) A exp j( 2πf c t + ψ ( t ))] (2)
largely on the slope of the two adjacent points (B and C)
which following the known point (A). We need to
Where statistics the probability which in the event that K2 turns
N
up following K1. It means that we only need to count the
1
ξ(t ) =
N
∑ exp j ( 2 π f D t cos θ n + φ n ) case Kn which happened behind K1 and also the total time
n =1 (3) of every case happened behind K1. So the probability of
the case which Kn turns up following K1 can be expressed
ξ(t) is the channel gain. N is the number of plane waves by
with the same strength but different phases arriving at a
receive antenna. A is the carrier amplitude. fD is the M
P( Kn | K1) =
maximum Doppler frequency. Ψ(t) is phase of the N (9)
transmitted wave. θn is the arrival direction of the nth Here M is the time of Kn turns up following K1, N is the
plane wave. φn is phase of the nth received plane wave. total time of all the case.
The rapid fading has high speed and deep depth (-
40dB). In reality, the rapid fading is the primary factor

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 Fig.3 Difference process
If the case K1 turns up again, we can choose the slope
with larger probability P(Kn|K1) as the slope of next
curvilinear path. If every case has the same probability,
then the mean is chosen. In a similar way, P(Kn|K2),
P(Kn|K3), P(Kn|K4)... are chosen.
This method is based on the mathematical thought of Fig.5 Comparison between prediction waveform and
the prior probability. In the process of sampling, several real waveform with 1000 steps
samples which occurred before are needed as references.
Because of the Doppler effect, the fading will become
So we should observe the slope data and its variation
heavily with the velocity increased. The experimental
tendency. Only when the sample under study is similar as
results are shown in Fig.6, Fig.7, Fig.8 and Fig.9.
this condition, the next slope in the aggregate will be
chosen. With the calculation above, base on every step's
slope, the next fading track can be estimated.
III. SIMULATION RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Experimental conditions are: carrier frequency
fc=800MHz, the transmission rate Rb=9.6Kbps, moving
velocity V=40Km/h, wave number N=16. By the
calculation, the aggregate of prior probability samples is
obtained. And also with the comparison of pilot between
the receiver and transmitter, the first data can be known
exactly. With them, the waveform predictions are
simulated with 40 steps and the results are illustrated in
Fig.4 and Fig.5 respectively. The samples are 500 and
1000 at each one.
Totally there are 40 steps waveform prediction. It is
found that when more estimation samples are utilized, the
estimation error will be decreased.
Then, the moving velocity will be changed into Fig.6 Comparison between prediction waveform and
20Km/h, 100Km/h, 200Km/h and 400Km/h. And the real waveform with V=20Km/h
other conditions keep the same.

Fig.4 Comparison between prediction waveform Fig.7 Comparison between prediction waveform and real
and real waveform with 500 steps waveform with V=100Km/h

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Fig.8 Comparison between prediction waveform and
real waveform with V=200Km/h
Fig.9 Comparison between prediction waveform and
real waveform with V=400Km/h
In this experimental, we know that a method based on
the probability of channel gain difference can be used for
channel estimation. When the velocity increased, it doesn't
mean that the number of samples should become more.
The sample aggregate must contain several fading
waveforms in order to get more characteristics about
fading. Because the Doppler effect in 20Km/h is small,
the waveforms characteristics is less. There are more error
codes in Fig.6. According to the four figures, it was found
that the difficult point under studying is the extreme point
of fading waveforms. In order to improve the performance,
the step of estimation can also be decreased. In future,
there are two works we need to do. One is to calculate the
mean error and then to decrease it. The other is that with
this method to solve the problem in wideband mobile
communication systems.
IV. CONCLUSION
In this paper, a method based on the probability of
channel gain difference is proposed. Then the statistics
characteristic of channel is analysed with the idea of prior
probability. The method has the virtue of high speed, low
complexity and strong real time reaction to surrounding. It
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will play a positive part in the channel estimation of
wideband mobile communication systems.
REFERENCES
[1] Zhisen Wang, Honghai Wang, "Mathematical simulated
calculation of mobile wireless channel", Journal of Dalian
polytechnic University, 2009, 9: 370-374.
[2] Kunhao Liu, "Study on channel estimation in OFDM system",
Theory Front, 2008, 4: 18-20.
[3] Shinsuke TAKAOKA, F. Adachi, "Frequency-Domain Adaptive
Prediction Iterative Channel Estimation for OFDM Signal
Reception", 2005.
[4] Junxuan Wang, "Technology of channel estimation in mobile
communication", Modern Electronic Technique, 2006, 19: 1-3.
[5] Shaoyuan He, "The study on channel estimation technique in
OFDM based on pilot", Science and Technology Innovation
Herald, 2009, 2: 27-28.
[6] Tianyu Jin, "A novel method for blind channel estimation",
Communications Technology, 2008, 12 (41): 89-91.
[7] Okumura Yoshihisa, "Fundamentals of Mobile Communications",
KORONA, 1986, 10.
[8] J. G. Proakis, "Digital Communication, Fourth Edition",
McGraw-Hill, 1995.
BIOGRAPHIES
Liang Pu, male, born in 1986, graduate student, from
R&D Center of Integrated Measurement and Control,
Dalian Polytechnic University, research on wireless
channel transmission.
Zhisen Wang, born in 1963, received M.E and Ph.D
degrees in telecommunication engineering from Tohoku
University, Sendai, Japan, in 2002 and 2005, respectively,
professor of Dalian Polytechnic University, member of
Communication Engineering (IEICE) Japan and senior
member of China Institute of Communication (CIC). His
research interests include wireless high speed packet
transfers, antenna technology, wireless network
technology, and so on.