Algorithms and Applications of Channel Impulse
Response Length Estimation for MIMO-OFDM
Marco Krondorf, Ting-Jung Liang, Martin Goblirsch and Gerhard Fettweis
Vodafone Chair Mobile Communications Systems, Technische Universität Dresden,
D-01062 Dresden, Germany
{krondorf,liang,goblir,fettweis}@ifn.et.tu-dresden.de, http://www.vodafone-chair.de/MNS
Abstract— The performance of the widely applied time-
domain channel estimation for SISO- and MIMO-OFDM systems
strongly depends on the preciseness of information regarding
maximum channel impulse response (CIR) length. In practice
the required CIR length is usually approximated by the length
of the cyclic prefix which is an upper bound for most of the
actual instantaneous CIR length. In this article1 , we introduce an
appropriate channel length estimation method - named as FCLI
(Frequency Domain Channel Length Indicator) which estimates
the CIR length minimizing the estimated mean square error
of an instantaneous channel estimate. The simulation results
present that the FCLI outperforms the approximation of cyclic
prefix length. In addition, we investigate two applications of
FCLI on 1) cyclic prefix adaptation OFDM systems in which
we minimize the overhead of the cyclic prefix by the estimated
CIR length and 2) cyclic prefix free OFDM systems in which
we directly re-construct the structure of cyclic repetition with
reduced error. Compared to the traditional channel estimation
with the approximation of cyclic prefix length, the overall system
throughput of either cyclic prefix adaptation or cyclic prefix free
OFDM transmission scheme is significantly enhanced regardless
of perfect synchronization or practical distribution of time offsets.
I. I NTRODUCTION
In present packet-based OFDM WLAN, such as
IEEE802.11a/g, the channel estimation functions can be
accomplished by a preamble [1] and a time domain channel
estimation [13] at the receiver. This is a reliable algorithm
and can be extended to MIMO-OFDM systems by sending
orthogonal training sequences from different transmit
antennas [12]. The time domain channel estimator with
a-priori knowledge of CIR length can provide sufficiently
good channel estimates for MIMO-OFDM systems, but in
practice the required CIR length is usually approximated
by the length of the cyclic prefix and the time domain
channel estimation performance degrades significantly, if the
approximated CIR length is much longer than the real CIR
length. The reasons motivate us to find an appropriate method
to estimate the CIR length.
In the literature, there are already two important approaches
for CIR length estimation: NCLE (Noise Variance and CIR
Length Estimation) algorithm [14] and a method presented
by Gong and Letaief [4] based on SVD (Singular Value
1 This work was partly supported by the German ministry of research and
education within the project Wireless Gigabit with Advanced Multimedia
Support (WIGWAM) under grant 01 BU 370
Decomposition) of the channel auto-correlation matrix. Both
techniques average the estimated CIR over a long period of
time and perform well in continuous streaming OFDM sys-
tems such as DVB-T. However, averaging CIR over multiple
OFDM symbols is not always applicable in practical SISO-
and MIMO-OFDM systems, such as IEEE 802.11a/g, IEEE
802.11n or the 1 Gbit/s WIGWAM [6] systems because of
the bursty nature of packet switched traffic. Additionally, the
spectrum mask which defines a set of null-subcarriers to
reduce the leakage at the spectral edges is not considered in
their algorithms.
In order to avoid the problems above, we introduced the
FCLI-Frequency Domain Channel Length Indicator algorithm
firstly in [11], which estimates the mean square error (MSE)
of the channel estimate under different hypotheses of instanta-
neous channel lengths and the hypothesis leading to minimum
MSE is chosen as an appropriate CIR length. It should be
noted that the FCLI algorithm is based on only one snapshot
of channel estimate in the acquisition phase and the estimated
MSE is calculated by channel information inside of the used
subset of subcarriers defined by a spectrum mask.
In addition, the cyclic prefix (CP) of OFDM symbols
contains a cyclic extension of the transmitted data and prevents
from inter symbol and inter carrier interference (ISI & ICI).
This technique allows a simple FFT-based frequency equal-
ization and gives rise to low cost terminals, which are highly
suitable for consumer electronics and mobile applications, but
- as expected - the drawback of inserting cyclic prefix before
OFDM symbols is the loss of spectral efficiency. Based on the
findings of FCLI, it is possible to enhance the overall system
throughput by either truncating the CP to a minimal necessary
amount or by applying cyclic prefix free OFDM systems in
which we directly re-construct the structure of cyclic repetition
with reduced error. In this article, we investigate the system
throughput of both throughput enhanced methods above using
FCLI or approximation of cyclic prefix length for time-domain
channel estimation in OFDM receivers taking into account
residual time offsets.
After the motivation of our interest in channel impulse re-
sponse length estimation, the rest of this article is organized as
follows: In Sec.II a discrete baseband MIMO-OFDM system
model is presented. Sec.III summarizes the preamble-based
MIMO-OFDM channel estimation algorithms and analyzes the
mean square error of channel estimates with given hypothesis
of CIR lengths followed by the derivation of FCLI algorithm OFDM symbol vector Yi,r of size [NC × 1] can be written as
in Sec.IV. In Sec.V and Sec.VI, we depict how FCLI is applied follows
NT
X
for cyclic prefix adaptation and cyclic prefix free OFDM
Yi,r = Xi,t Hr,t + Ni,r (2)
systems followed by throughput comparison in Sec. VII and
t=1
conclusions in Sec. VIII.
where Xi,t denotes the i-th [NC × NC ] diagonal matrix
II. MIMO-OFDM S YSTEM M ODEL containing the frequency domain data symbols of transmit
antenna t. The Ni,r denotes the i-th AWGN vector at receive
Generally, we consider MIMO-OFDM systems shown in
antenna r. The Hr,t represents the [NC ×1] vector of frequency
Fig.1 which uses NT transmit and NR receive antennas
domain channel coefficients between antennas r and t and the
(respective indices t and r) and NF F T points FFT/IFFT, where
channel coefficient at subcarrier position n is given by
NC subcarriers are used for data transmission and the other
L−1
X
NF F T −NC subcarriers, in addition to DC, forming a spectrum −j2π N nk
mask at the spectral edges to reduce outer band radiation. Hr,t (n) = hr,t (k)e FF T (3)
k=0

During one OFDM block, the channel impulse responses

OFDM 1 1 OFDM -1
Coding Decoding
between all transmit and receive antenna pairs are assumed
OFDM 2
2 OFDM -1 to be static, therefore we omit symbol index i in channel
Modulation Demodulation
coefficients Hr,t (n).
. . .

. . .

Antenna H Antenna
Mapping Demapping
OFDM OFDM -1
III. OVERVIEW OF T IME D OMAIN MIMO-OFDM
NT NR
C HANNEL E STIMATION
Fig. 1. MIMO OFDM System Model The time domain channel estimation provides sufficiently
accurate channel estimates with a-priori knowledge of CIR
The OFDM blocks are transmitted seamlessly and contin- length [13] for SISO-OFDM and, based on the work in [3] and
uously in time as presented in Fig. 2. One OFDM block is [12], the same concept can be extended to MIMO-OFDM by
composed of NB OFDM data symbols and one preamble, sending orthogonal training sequences from different transmit
which contains one cyclic prefix and NT identical Long antennas, such as Code Orthogonal (CO) and Frequency
Training Symbols (LTS; of size one OFDM symbols without Orthogonal (FO) designs of preamble training sequences. In
CP) designed for channel estimation. this work, we consider only the least squares (LS) channel
Time
estimation using a preamble composed of FO pilots. This is
due to the fact, that FO pilot designs can achieve the same
Preamble
OFDM
Symbol 1
... OFDM
Symbol N
4B
Preamble
... estimation performance [11] as CO pilot designs but require a
much lower computational complexity for channel estimation.
Fig. 2. Block structure of OFDM Transmission
In addition, MIMO-OFDM channel estimation using FO pilots
can be decomposed into NT NR SISO channel estimation
problems in parallel. Therefore, we omit the antenna indices
The i-th time domain transmitted OFDM symbol xi,t from
t and r in the following sections.
the t-th transmit antenna is the inverse FFT of frequency-
domain signal Xi,t pre-pended with length NCP cyclic prefix. A. Channel Estimation using FO Sequences
The i-th time domain OFDM symbol at receive antenna r can The FO design means that different transmit antennas trans-
be formulated as mit training sequences in different sets of equally distributed
 
NT
X L−1
X NP C = NC /NT subcarriers and, for one specific transmit an-
yi,r (k) =  hr,t (j)xi,t (k − j) + ni,r (k) (1) tenna, no pilot signals are transmitted on the other NC − NP C
t=1 j=0 subcarriers. This characteristics of smaller matrix dimension
for one specific transmit antenna can be utilized to reduce the
with time index k and L represents the length of the corre- complexity of matrix multiplication.
sponding channel impulse response2 hr,t . The length of cyclic Fig. 3 shows an example of time-domain channel estimation
prefix NCP ≥ L is chosen to prevent inter-symbol-interference using FO pilots and the estimated frequency-domain channel
and preserve subcarrier orthogonality. For further details on coefficient in Fig. 3 takes the following vector/matrix form
OFDM please see [8].
When perfect time and frequency synchronisation is as- ˆ = 1 ẊH Ẏ
Ḣ (4)
2
σX
sumed at receive antenna r, the i-th received frequency domain
where the dimension reduction from NC to NP C is repre-
2 Notation: Upper (lower) letters will be generally used for frequency- sented by the dotted notation. Therefore, the missing NC −
domain (time-domain) signals; boldface letters represent matrices and column
vectors; letters with both boldface and underline represent block matrices or NP C channel coefficients have to be interpolated. This can be
vectors in MIMO. done either by linear / spline-cubic interpolation directly in
 Y[ N C ×1] Select Pilot &ˆ
H |CIR|
Carriers [ N PC ×1] IDFT to calculate
Y CIR of Length L Channel & Noise Noise
Hˆ k = k
Xk

hˆ [ L×1]
ˆ
H FFT hˆ [ N FFT ×1]
[ N C ×1] Zero Padding
N FFT Points ( N FFT − L ) 0 L Samples

Fig. 4. Estimated CIR consists of two parts, channel+noise inside of CIR

Fig. 3. Time domain least squares channel estimation using FO pilot design length [0...L] and noise only outside of CIR length

2
frequency domain [7] or by time domain interpolation shown where M SEn (L, σN ) denotes the MSE part, directly induced
in Fig. 3, which calculates the corresponding CIR out of Ḣ ˆ by AWGN of variance σN 2
inside of [0 : L̂ − 1].
followed by zero padding in interval [L . . . NF F T ] and FFT Conversely, if L is approximated by L̂ < L, the M SE(L̂)
2
to obtain the interpolated ĤL [2] by includes not only M SEn (L̂, σN ) induced by noise but also
an additional error part M SEch (L̂) caused by neglecting
ĤL = FNC ,L ĥL with
† ˆ
ĥL = ḞNP C ,L Ḣ (5) CIR samples inside the time domain interval [L̂ . . . L]. The
phenomenon discussed above can be summarized as
where [.]† denotes the pseudo-inverse matrix operation and
ḞNP C ,L represents the truncated Fourier-matrices of dimension M SE(L̂) =
[NP C × L] containing the elements  2
  M SEn (L̂, σN ) + M SEch (L̂) , L̂ < L
nk 2 (10)
[ḞNP C ,L ]n,k = exp −j2π (6) M SEn (L̂, σN ) , L̂ ≥ L
NF F T
Subsequently, we want to know the relationship between
with 0 ≤ k ≤ L − 1 and n ∈ P t . The P t denotes the index set the MSE of the channel estimates and available information
of the NP C pilot carriers of Tx-antenna t. Similarly, matrix at the receiver, such as the frequency domain channel estimate
FNC ,L of dimension [NC × L] has entries Ĥ, guard interval length, noise power and CIR hypothesis L̂.
  This relationship is required to derive the FCLI algorithm in
nk
[ḞNC ,L ]n,k = exp −j2π (7) the next section.
NF F T
Firstly, the frequency domain channel estimate is derived
with 0 ≤ k ≤ L − 1 and data-subcarrier index n. Substituting by replacing L by L̂ and by substituting the frequency-domain
2
Eq. (4) into Eq. (5) and assuming σX = 1, the interpolated transmission function Ẏ = ẊḢ+ Ṅ into Eq. (8). The estimated
ĤL becomes frequency-domain channel coefficient introduced by only the
† H CIR taps k ≤ L̂ is denoted by ĤL̂ which can be decomposed
ĤL = FNC ,L ḞNP C ,L Ẋ Ẏ (8)
into two parts: real channel information and noise.
B. MSE Analysis †
ĤL̂ = FNC ,L̂ hL̂ +FNC ,L̂ ḞNP C ,L̂ Ṅ (11)
The performance of the channel estimator is characterized | {z } | {z }
by the mean square error (MSE) of the channel estimates HL̂ nL̂

averaged over all receive antennas and used subcarriers. If 2 †

we perfectly know the channel length L, the MSE of the with the pilot power σX = 1 and ḞNP C ,L̂ Ḣ = hL̂ . In addition,
channel estimates by a least square (LS) time domain channel hL̂ denotes the original CIR vector inside the length L̂ and
†
estimation with spectrum mask [12] [13] can be formulated nL̂ = ḞNP C ,L̂ Ṅ denotes the noise vector inside of length L̂.
as a specific function of the perfectly known channel length Secondly, following the observation in Eq. (10), if L̂ < L,
2
L and the noise power σN . the MSE in Eq. (9) can be further extended by defining the
The mean square error of channel estimates using CIR time domain interval rest = [L̂ . . . L] and by separating the
length L for time domain least square estimation is denoted CIR into two subsets: channel taps inside of hypothesis L̂ and
as M SE(L) and takes the following form channel taps inside of time interval rest.
 
M SE(L) = E{tr[(ĤL − H)(ĤL − H)H ]} (9) hL̂
hL = and FNC ,L = [FNC ,L̂ FNC ,rest ]
where tr[.] and E{.} denotes the trace and expectation opera- hrest
tor. ĤL represents the channel estimates using the CIR length It follows
L that can be obtained by Eq.(8).  
hL̂
Furthermore, Fig. 4 shows the absolute value of the esti- H = FNC ,L hL = [FNC ,L̂ FNC ,rest ]
hrest
mated CIR vs. time samples. If L is approximated by L̂ ≥ L,
= FNC ,L̂ hL̂ + FNC ,rest hrest (12)
MSE is only affected by AWGN inside of [0 : L̂−1]. Hence we | {z } | {z }
2 2
have M SE(L̂) = M SEn (L̂, σN ) with parameters L̂ and σN , HL̂ Hrest
and Then the hypothesis L̂g with the minimum estimated MSE is
ĤL̂ − H = AL̂ Ṅ − FNC ,rest hrest (13) chosen
L̂ = arg min {M SE e (L̂g )} (17)
by substituting Eq. (11) into Eq. (12) and AL̂ = L̂g
FNC ,L̂ F†N ,L̂ .
PC
Furthermore, we assume that H and N are uncorrelated and where M SE e (L̂g ) denotes that the MSE is estimated by the
2
substitute Eq. (13) into Eq. (9). The M SE(L̂) becomes respective approximated L̂g . The noise power σN can be
estimated by algorithms, such as the double sliding window
2
M SE(L̂) =M SEn (L̂, σN ) + M SEch (L̂) algorithm [16]. The number of tested channel length hypothe-
2
=σN tr[AL̂ AH
L̂
]+ ses depends on the computational power of the receiver, and
is therefore a design parameter of the algorithm. It should be
tr[FNC ,rest hrest hH H
rest FNC ,rest ] (14)
noted that the estimated channel length is not the maximum
Fig. 5 presents that the M SE(L̂) in Eq. (14) includes length of the CIR, but the length of the CIR minimizing the
both the effect of M SEn and that of M SEch . The M SEn M SE e of the channel estimate.
increases linearly depending on the hypothesis of CIR length
A. Calculation of M SE e
whereas the energy of the CIR inside of the time interval rest
(M SEch ) decreases to be zero, when L̂ ≥ L. In addition, it Eq. (14) shows that we can separate the estimation of
should be noted that Eq. (14) is an analytical representation of M SE e (L̂) for a given hypothesis L̂ into two parts. The first
MSE that cannot be calculated at receiver because of unknown part in Eq. (14) is
CIR h 2 2
M SEne (L̂, σN ) = σN tr[AL̂ AH
L̂
] (18)
Time Samples
MSE ch MSE n where AL̂ is known. The second part in Eq. (14) is calculated
by replacing L to be any L̂max , such as CP length, which is
MSEch ( Lˆ1 ) MSEch
longer than maximal CIR length L in Eq. (16)
MSE n MSE n ( LˆG , σ N2 )
MSE ch ( Lˆ2 )
e e e
M SEch (L̂) = Ech (L̂max ) − Ech (L̂) (19)
MSE n ( Lˆ2 , σ N2 )
e
MSE ( Lˆ , σ 2 )
n 1 N
The Ech (L̂max ) is equal to the whole channel energy Ech (L),
e
... and Ech (L̂) denotes the estimated used channel energy inside
0 L̂1 L̂2 L LˆG Samples
the interval [1 . . . L̂].
MSE ( Lˆ , σ ) 2 MSE ( Lˆ , σ N2 ) Time
= MSE ch ( L ) + MSE n ( L , σ N )
Samplesˆ ˆ 2
e
N To avoid the effect of spectrum mask, Ech (L̂) should be
calculated with the help of the energy of frequency domain
MSE ( LˆG , σ N2 ) channel estimates as the following form
NC
X
MSE ( Lˆ1 , σ N2 ) H
EĤ (L̂) = |ĤL̂ (k)|2 = tr[ĤL̂ ĤL̂ ] (20)
...

MSE ( Lˆ2 , σ N2 ) k=1

0 ... LˆG Samples
Subsequently, by substituting Eq. (11) into the (20) and assum-
L̂1 L̂2
ing the channel h to be a deterministic quantity, the energy of
Fig. 5. Qualitative representation of MSE performance over time domain the channel estimate inside of the used data subcarriers with
samples CIR hypothesis L̂ can be re-formulated to be

Subsequently, if we define the used CIR energy Ech (L̂) E{EĤ (L̂)} =tr[FNC ,L̂ hL̂ hH FH ]
L̂ NC ,L̂
2
inside of interval [1 . . . L̂] as + σN tr[AL̂ AH
L̂
] (21)
Ech (L̂) = tr[FNC ,L̂ hL̂ hH FH ]
L̂ NC ,L̂
(15) Next, using the definition of Ech (L̂) in Eq. (15), the energy of
the M SEch in Eq. (14) can be re-written as: the channel power can be derived exactly by Eq. (21). By
 omitting the averaging operation in Eq. (21), the resulting
Ech (L) − Ech (L̂) L̂ < L e
Ech (L̂) can be considered as the estimated energy of channel
M SEch (L̂) = (16)
0 L̂ ≥ L power:
e
Ech 2
(L̂) = EĤ (L̂) − σN tr[AL̂ AH ] (22)
In practice, Ech (L̂) = Ech (L) for any L̂ ≥ L. L̂

In summary, the M SE e (L̂) can be calculated as follows

IV. FCLI C HANNEL L ENGTH E STIMATION M SE e (L̂) = M SEch
e 2
(L̂) + M SEne (L̂, σN )
The basic idea of FCLI is that we estimate M SE(L̂g ) for 2
= EĤ (L̂max ) − EĤ (L̂) + 2σN tr[AL̂ AH ]
L̂
all L̂g with g ∈ [1...G] out of a given set of G CIR length
hypotheses by using a-priori knowledge of noise power σN 2
.
2
− σN tr[AL̂max AH
L̂max
]. (23)
B. Algorithm in Pseudo Code Notation (perfect synchronization) or an equally distributed time shift in
Exploiting a set of G CIR length hypotheses the interval [−128 : 0] samples for WIGWAM PA scenario and
[L̂1 < . . . < L̂G ], FCLI can be formulated in pseudo in the interval [−32 : 0] samples for WIGWAM HO scenario.
code notation as follows: When considering timing error, the channel estimation error is
characterized by the mean squared difference of the frequency
(1) init: σN2
, Y, [L̂1 < . . . < L̂G ], domain channel estimates and the Fourier transform of the
[AL̂1 , . . . , AL̂G ] actual CIR that is shifted by the known time offset. These
(2) for i=G...1 parameters and definitions will be applied for all the numerical
Ĥi = Channel Estimation(Y,L̂i ) examples in this article.
EĤ (L̂i ) = sum(|Ĥi |2 )
M SEn (L̂i ) = σN2
tr[AL̂i AH
L̂i
]
e
M SE (L̂i ) = EĤ (L̂G ) − EĤ (L̂i )
−1 TDLS perfect sync
−M SEn (L̂G ) 10 TDLS timing error
+2M SEn (L̂i ) FCLI perfect sync
FCLI timing error
end
(4) L̂ = arg min {M SE e (L̂g )} −2
L̂g 10

(5) Ĥ = Ĥg where L̂ = L̂g

MSE
C. FCLI channel estimation performance
−3
10
The performance of the FCLI algorithm is investigated by
computer simulations using the OFDM system parameters
of the WIGWAM home/office (HO) or public access (PA)
scenarios [6] listed in Tab.I. −4
10

Parameter WIGWAM PA WIGWAM HO 0 5 10 15 20 25 30

Bandwidth 100MHz 100 MHz SNR in dB
Data Carriers 1236 616
FFT Size 2048 1024
Fig. 6. Comparison of Time domain least squares channel estimation (TDLS)
Sampling Time 6.25 ns 6.25 ns and FCLI for WIGWAM HO SISO systems in IEEE802.11n channel model
Cyclic Prefix 3.2µs (512samples) 800ns (128samples) D
MIMO/SISO 1×1 1×1 / 4×4 V-BLAST
NB 10 OFDM sym. 10 OFDM sym.
Modulation QPSK QPSK
Fig. 6 presents an examples of the FCLI under the IEEE
Conv. Coding code rate r = 0.5 code rate r = 0.5 802.11n channel model D (CIR is max. 64 samples). The
Codeword Length 1 OFDM sym. 1 OFDM sym. conventional time domain least squares (TDLS) channel es-
ARQ none none timator approximates the CP length (128 samples) as the
LTS. 1 OFDM Sym. NT OFDM Sym. CIR length. The results depict that FCLI outperforms the
Terminal Velocity pedestrian static TDLS at all SNR regardless of perfect synchronization or a
TABLE I practical distribution of timing errors. In Fig. 7 we illustrate
PHY PARAMETERS USED IN S IMULATION the sensitivity of FCLI according to different sets G of channel
length hypotheses using IEEE 802.11n channel model C (CIR
is max. 32 samples). Interestingly, even if the highly reduced
For WIGWAM HO scenario, we consider three different hypotheses sets are used, FCLI outperforms conventional time
channel models [5]: the IEEE 802.11n channel model C (L ≈ domain least squares channel estimator in terms of MSE.
200 ns or 32 samples), the IEEE 802.11n channel model D
(L ≈ 390 ns or 64 samples) and the IEEE 802.11n channel V. C YCLIC P REFIX A DAPTATION
model E (L ≈ 800 ns or 128 samples). The used set of
CIR length hypotheses for FCLI algorithms is given by L̂g ∈ Cyclic prefix adaptation is one option for MIMO-OFDM
[20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100, 110, 128] samples. On throughput enhancement by limiting the CP to the minimal
the other hand, for WIGWAM PA scenario, we consider the necessary amount, without performing any complex signal
other two channel models: ITU Pedestrian channel model A processing at receiver side. In [10], the authors propose the
(L ≈ 500 ns or 80 samples) and B (L ≈ 3.2 µs or 512 FCLI-based CP-adaptation and present that the FCLI-based
samples). The used set of CIR length hypothesis for FCLI CP-adaptation technique outperforms all the other CIR length
algorithm is given by L̂g ∈ [20, 30, 50, 80, 100, 120, 150, estimation schemes for overall system throughput. Fig. 8
200, 250, 300, 350, 400, 450, 500, 550, 600] samples. The shows that, after receiving the CIR length estimates, the
misalignment of the FFT-window is introduced by timing error transmitter adapts the CP length for the next OFDM block
of the received time domain signals which is modeled as zero and the size of the OFDM block should fulfill the following
 appropriate cyclic prefix adaptation with L̂ < L can provide
G = [20,30,40,50,60,70,80,90,100,110,120,128] even lower packet error rates than the genie-case (L̂ = L) in
−1 G = [20, 40, 60, 80, 100, 120] practical propagation conditions. In addition, under negative
10
G = [30, 80, 120] timing, Fig. 9 shows that the FCLI algorithm reacts on the
right-shifted CIRs with an increase of CIR length estimates.
−2 TDLS
10
140
MSE

estimated CIR length in time domain samples

−3 FCLI 120
10
11n E channel
100

−4
11n D channel
10 80

11n C channel
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 60
SNR [dB]

40
Fig. 7. Comparison of Time domain least squares channel estimation (TDLS)
and FCLI for WIGWAM HO SISO systems in IEEE802.11n channel model
C under different sets of channel length hypotheses 20
perfect sync
timing error
0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
criterion due to channel variations SNR in dB

2 × [(NT × TSym + TCP ) + NB × (TSym + TCP )] < TC

where TC and TSym denote the channel coherence time
and the length of one OFDM symbol without cyclic pre-
fix. In numerical examples, a perfect feedback signaling
channel is assumed to propagate the estimated CIR length
back to the transmitter. In our throughput calculation, we
ignore the signaling overhead, because this overhead is very
small for a high data rate broadband system and we assume
that this overhead can be covered by the present signaling
channels. For example, if we use the hypotheses set G =
[20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100, 110, 128] of Sec. IV-C, we
only need to feed back 4 bits per block/frame in uplink
signaling channel.
Time
... P OFDM Block P OFDM Block
Fig. 9. Comparison of estimated CIR length under perfect and errornous
synchronization for WIGWAM HO SISO systems in IEEE802.11n channel
model C, D and E
The same CP-adaptation procedure of SISO depicted above
can be extended to MIMO for the same purpose of increas-
ing spectral efficiency and saving transmit power. In MIMO
systems, we assume that all NT NR channels have comparable
power delay profiles but their individual channel realizations
are independent, and we define that all NT Tx-antennas
transmit their OFDM symbols with the same CP length in
order to keep the same frame structure.
The idea above can be implemented in two steps. Firstly,
we apply the FCLI algorithm for different transmit and receive
antenna pairs to yield a set of NT NR CP-adaptation propo-
sitions (CIR length estimates) independently, then we choose
P ... a resulting CP length by averaging all the NT NR CIR length
estimates.
LCP = mean{L̂1,1, ..., L̂NT ,NR } (24)

CIR Length Estimation CIR Length Estimation where L̂t,r are the FCLI-based CIR length estimates used for
and CP-Adaptation and CP-Adaptation CP-adaptation between antennas r and t.

Fig. 8. CP-adaptation procedure
Fig. 9 depicts that FCLI intentionally underestimates the
CIR length to minimize MSE at low SNR, which means that
the performance loss due to neglecting some low power chan-
nel taps at the tail is smaller than the performance improve-
ment of noise power reduction. Nevertheless, the intentionally
underestimated CIR length gives rise to some residual inter
symbol interference. In [10] the authors has depicted that an
VI. O PTIMIZED ISI AND ICI CANCELLATION FOR
CP- FREE OFDM
The idea of cyclic prefix free system was firstly proposed
in [17] and the optimization of a CP-free system (based on
the work of [17]) using FCLI was firstly introduced in [9],
where the authors show that the FCLI-based CP-free OFDM
transmission is superior to the conventional CP-free OFDM
schemes given in literature. Generally speaking, omitting the
cyclic prefix gives rise to a significant improvement of system
throughput, but we lose the properties of the cyclic convolution where wL̂ (k) denotes the channel estimation error of ĥL̂ and
for simple frequency domain equalization. In order to re- subsequently by combining Eq.(27) and Eq.(28) we have
construct the cyclic convolution of the i-th received OFDM PL̂−1
c i (k) =
isi
symbol Yi , the following algorithm described in [17] must be l=k hL̂ (l)x̂i−1 (NF F T + l − L̂) (29)
performed by using the estimated CIR ĥ and the previously PL̂−1
+ l=k wL̂ (l)x̂i−1 (NF F T + l − L̂)
detected OFDM symbol X̂i−1 : b
isii = isii + ∆isii (30)
1) Calculate ISI by using X̂i−1 and ĥ
2) Subtract the ISI in the i-th received OFDM symbol Yi Eq.(31) defines the energy of isii and ∆isii .
3) Detection of the i-th OFDM symbol: X̂i 2 2
4) Calculate cyclic loss by using X̂i and ĥ and add to Yi EISI (L̂) = kisii k and E∆ISI (L̂) = k∆isii k (31)
5) Detection of the i-th OFDM symbol: X̂i Since exact CIR hL̂ and associated estimation error wL̂ are
After this initial ISI & ICI cancellation stage, the steps 4 generally unknown, we use an appropriate estimation method
and 5 can be performed iteratively to enhance the detection to obtain EISI (L̂) and E∆ISI (L̂) that will be derived in the
performance. next section.

A. What should be optimized? B. Mathematical Derivation

In this section we derive the ISI cancellation gain
Based on the ISI cancellation algorithm above, we know, the
GainISI (L̂) with a given CIR length hypothesis L̂ in the
performance of the ISI & ICI cancellation for a CP-free system
frequency domain regarding spectrum mask.
can be characterized by the quality of the estimated CIR ĥ
and the previously detected OFDM symbol X̂i−1 . In practice, At first we define the following diagonal matrix
we assume that the previously detected OFDM symbol X̂i−1 ZNF F T −L̂ = diag[ 0, ..., 0 , 1, 1, ..., 1]
is always correctly detected and we propose to optimize the | {z } | {z }
NF F T −L̂ L̂
averaged ISI cancellation gain (the amount of net ISI power
canceled by the decision directed algorithm of [17]) to extract the ISI relevant part out of x̂i−1 and the ISI
signal is computed by the convolution of ĥL̂ and [NF F T × 1]
GainISI (L̂) = EISI (L̂) − E∆ISI (L̂) (25) time domain vector ZNF F T −L̂ x̂i−1 . Subsequently, we use the
characteristics that the time domain convolution is equivalent
where the EISI denotes the energy of the real ISI cancellation
to frequency domain multiplication and correspondent IDFT
signal with hypothesis L̂ and E∆ISI denotes the energy of c L̂)
to obtain the [NC × 1] frequency domain ISI vector ISI(
the additional noise signal due to channel estimation error. In
(omitting the index i of OFDM symbol number) as follows
addition, we will explain later that the ISI cancellation gain
GainISI (L̂) can be obtained by using an estimated CIR ĥL̂ c L̂) =
ISI( FNC ,−L̂:L̂ Z−L̂:L̂ F†N (32)
C ,−L̂:L̂
of length hypothesis L̂ and the previously detected OFDM
symbol X̂i−1 . ×ĤL̂ FNC ,NF F T ZNF F T −L̂ x̂i−1
To perform the cancellation method with the highest possi- where we use the following two Fourier matrices: FNC ,NF F T
ble gain, our algorithm tries to determine the estimated CIR of dimension [NC × NF F T ] according Eq.(7) and FNC ,−L̂:L̂
ĥL̂ of length hypothesis L̂ that maximizes the ISI cancellation
of dimension [NC × 2L̂] having elements
gain in Eq. (25)
nk
L̂ISI = arg max {GainISI (L̂ν )} (26) [FNC ,−L̂:L̂ ]n,k = exp(−j2π )
NF F T
L̂ν
with data-carrier index n and −L̂ ≤ k ≤ L̂ − 1. In addition,
by FCLI algorithm with a set of G CIR length hypotheses
2 we define the following [2L̂ × 2L̂] diagonal matrix
[L̂1 , ..., L̂G ] and the a-priori knowledge of noise power σN .
The result of Eq. (26) also holds for ICI correction due to Z−L̂:L̂ = diag[0, ..., 0 , 1, 1, ..., 1]
equal statistical properties of the ISI and the ICI signal [15]. | {z } | {z }
L̂+1 L̂−1
The required ISI cancellation signal is calculated by using
the previously detected OFDM symbol x̂i−1 and an estimated to filter the required ISI signals and we know that the diagonal
CIR ĥL̂ assuming length L̂ as follows matrix ĤL̂ of estimated channel coefficients has dimension
[NC × NC ]. Furthermore, with the pre-calculated matrices
L̂−1
X
c i (k) =
isi ĥL̂ (l)x̂i−1 (NF F T + l − L̂) (27) BL̂ = FNC ,−L̂:L̂ Z−L̂:L̂ F†N (33)
C ,−L̂:L̂
l=k CL̂ = FNC ,NF F T ZNF F T −L̂ (34)
with 1 ≤ k ≤ L̂ − 1 and Eq. (32) can be re-formulated to be
ĥL̂ (k) = hL̂ (k) + wL̂ (k) (28) c L̂) = B Ĥ C x̂i−1
ISI( (35)
L̂ L̂ L̂
 Secondly, we calculate the ISI cancellation gain c L̂)k2 can be directly computed from Eq.(35), only
where kISI(
GainISI (L̂) by decomposing Eq.(35) into useful ISI using previously detected OFDM data, an appropriate channel
part and ISI calculation error with the following definition estimate and a priori knowledge of AWGN variance.
In Fig. 10 we neglect the detection error propagation of x̂i−1
ĤL̂ = HL̂ + WL̂ (36)
and compare the ISI cancellation gain GainISI performance
where WL̂ denotes [NC × NC ] diagonal matrix of frequency of Eq.(46) with the genie ISI cancellation gain for different
domain channel estimation error. With −NC /2 ≤ n ≤ SNR. Genie ISI cancellation gain means that we use a perfect
NC /2 − 1 and decomposition of the channel estimate into the true CIR and
channel estimation error (equivalent to substitute Eq.(30) and
L̂−1
X −j2π N nk Eq.(31) into Eq.(25)). The WIGWAM HO SISO configuration
HL̂ (n) = h(k)e FFT (37)
(see Tab. I) and IEEE 802.11n channel model D are applied
k=0
in simulation. The results in Fig. 10 present that the ISI/ICI
it follows from Eq.(35) and Eq.(36) cancellation algorithm of [17] can even increase the overall
c L̂) = B H C x̂i−1 + B W C x̂i−1
ISI( (38) noise (GainISI < 0) when using a CIR length hypothesis
| L̂ L̂{zL̂ } | L̂ L̂{z L̂ } for ISI/ICI cancellation that is much longer than the optimum
ISI(L̂) ∆ISI(L̂) length.
If we assume that HL̂ and WL̂ are independent, and substitute
the frequency-domain definition of ISI energy EISI (L̂) =
0.5
E{kISI(L̂)k2 } as well as E∆ISI (L̂) = E{k∆ISI(L̂)k2 } into
Eq.(38), then we get
c L̂)k2 } = EISI (L̂) + E∆ISI (L̂)
E{kISI( (39)
0
According Eq.(25) and Eq.(39), ISI cancellation gain can be
expressed by
ISI
Gain

c L̂)k2 } − 2E∆ISI (L̂)

GainISI (L̂) = E{kISI( (40)
estimated Gain SNR 5 dB
As stated in [11] it can be useful to avoid any time averaging −0.5 Genie Gain SNR 5 dB
in order to instantaneously react on changing propagation con- estimated Gain SNR 10 dB
Genie Gain SNR 10 dB
ditions. Therefore we omit the averaging operator in Eq.(40) estimated Gain SNR 20 dB
and obtain Genie Gain SNR 20 dB

c L̂)k2 − 2E∆ISI (L̂)

GainISI (L̂) = kISI( (41) −1
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
channel length hypotheses in time domain samples
Subsequently, in order to estimate the last unknown value
E∆ISI (L̂), we introduce matrix Fig. 10. ISI cancellation gain vs. CIR length hypotheses under different SNR
X̃i−1 = diag[CL̂ x̂i−1 ] (42)
and consider [NC × 1] channel estimation error vector WL̂ . VII. T HROUGHPUT C OMPARISON
Using Eq.(38) and Eq.(42) we can write We compare the average throughput of CP-adaptation and
2 CP-free systems using time domain channel estimation with
E∆ISI (L̂) = E{k∆ISI(L̂)k } (43)
H approximation of cyclic prefix length or FCLI algorithm. In
= E{tr[BL̂ X̃i−1 WL̂ WH X̃ BH ]}
L̂ i−1 L̂ case of NT × NR layered MIMO transmission, the average
Since BL̂ and X̃i−1 represent deterministic quantities, E{.} throughput R at Eb /N0 value γ, measured in [Bits/Sec], is
only affects the channel estimation error. Hence we have given by
 
2 H NB NC ld(M ) r
E∆ISI (L̂) = σL̂ tr[BL̂ X̃i−1 X̃i−1 BH
L̂
] (44) R(γ) = NT (1 − Pe (γ))
NB + NP TSym + TCP
2
where σL̂ represents the mean squared channel estimation
error due to AWGN, which is re-written from (18). where r denotes the code rate, Pe (γ) denotes the simulated
frame error rate at Eb /N0 value γ and NP represents the
2 2 † †
σL̂ = σN tr[FNC ,L̂ ḞNP C ,L̂ (ḞNP C ,L̂ )H FH
NC ,L̂
] (45) number of preamble symbols per OFDM block. In case of
| {z } CP-adaptation, TCP represents the cyclic prefix length av-
DL̂
eraged over all simulated OFDM blocks at a given Eb /N0 .
Substituting Eq.(44) and Eq.(45) into Eq.(41) we obtain finally Conversely, in case of CP-free OFDM, TCP is zero. In the
c L̂)k2 simulations we used the same setup as given in Sec.IV-C.
GainISI (L̂) = kISI( (46) Simulation results of the WIGWAM PA system can be seen
2 H
−2σN DL̂ tr[BL̂ X̃i−1 X̃i−1 BH
L̂
] in Fig.11 and Fig.12 (SISO), those for the WIGWAM HO
scenario are depicted in Fig.13 (4×4 MIMO). Generally, the 90
modeled timing error causes an increase of CIR length. If the
resulting CIR due to timing offset is shorter than the CP, there 80
is no throughput difference compared to the perfect timing
case for standard OFDM. This can be seen especially in Fig.11 70

Throughput [MBit/Sec]
and Fig.13. Even when the timing error causes an effective
CIR that exceeds the CP length, the resulting ISI and ICI 60
does not affect throughput considerably in standard OFDM
systems (see Fig.12). For CP-adaptation, timing error causes 50

a throughput reduction due to the extension of the CIR length

especially in low and mid SNR. Furthermore, in the CP-free 40
Standard OFDM perfect sync
CP−adaptation perfect sync
case, FFT-window misalignments due to timing imperfections CP−free OFDM perfect sync
30
cause an effective SNR-loss even if we would assume a perfect Standard OFDM timing error
CP−adaptation timing error
ISI/ICI cancellation. Nevertheless, in most of the relevant CP−free OFDM timing error
20
propagation conditions, CP-free OFDM outperforms the CP- 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26
Eb/N0 [dB]
adaptation scheme and the standard OFDM transmission in
terms of throughput even under timing error constraints.
Fig. 12. Comparison of Throughput in WIGWAM PA SISO System using
Standard OFDM, OFDM with CP-adaptation and CP-free OFDM under
perfect and errornous synchronisation, ITU Pedestrian Channel model B
90

80 280

270
Throughput [MBit/Sec]

70
260
Throughput [MBit/Sec]

60
250

50 240

Standard OFDM perfect sync

CP−adaptation perfect sync 230
40 CP−free OFDM perfect sync
Standard OFDM timing error
220 Standard OFDM perfect sync
CP−adaptation timing error
CP−adaptation perfect sync
CP−free OFDM timing error
CP−free OFDM perfect sync
30
10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 210 Standard OFDM timing error
Eb/N0 [dB] CP−adaptation timing error
CP−free OFDM timing error
200
10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26
Fig. 11. Comparison of Throughput in WIGWAM PA SISO System using Eb/N0 [dB]
Standard OFDM, OFDM with CP-adaptation and CP-free OFDM under
perfect and errornous synchronisation, ITU Pedestrian Channel model A
Fig. 13. Comparison of Throughput in WIGWAM HO MIMO 4x4 System
using Standard OFDM, OFDM with CP-adaptation and CP-free OFDM under
perfect and errornous synchronisation, IEEE 802.11n Channel model D
VIII. C ONCLUSIONS
In this paper, we introduce the Frequency Domain Channel
significantly for both cyclic prefix adaptation and cyclic pre-
Length Indicator (FCLI) algorithm to estimate the Channel
fix free OFDM systems using FCLI compared to standard
Impulse Response (CIR) length minimizing the estimated
OFDM using conventional time domain channel estimation.
mean square error of an instantaneous channel estimate for
The optimized CP-free OFDM scheme with higher complexity
SISO- and MIMO-OFDM. Our results show that the FCLI
provides also higher throughput than the CP adaptation scheme
algorithm outperforms a conventional time domain least square
regardless of timing errors and the performance gain is espe-
channel estimation, approximating the cyclic prefix length
cially large in case that our channel models have a shorter CIR
to be the CIR length, regardless of timing errors at all
length. In summary, CIR length estimation by FCLI enables
SNR. Subsequently, we investigate two applications of the
the terminals to react on instantaneously changing channel
FCLI algorithm for SISO- and MIMO-OFDM to enhance the
conditions, the mean square error of channel estimates is
throughput: 1) cyclic prefix adaptation in which we minimize
improved and the throughput is enhanced.
the overhead of the cyclic prefix by the estimated CIR length
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