Joint Channel Estimation and

Prediction for OFDM Systems

Ian C. Wong and Brian L. Evans
{iwong,bevans}@ece.utexas.edu
Embedded Signal Processing Laboratory
Wireless Networking and Communications Group
The University of Texas at Austin
IEEE Global Telecommunications Conference
Nov. 30, 2005

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 Adaptive Orthogonal Frequency
Division Multiplexing (OFDM)
 Adjust transmission based on channel information
 Maximize data rates and/or improve link quality
 Problems
 Feedback delay - significant performance loss
 Volume of feedback - power and bandwidth overhead
Time-varying
Back haul Wideband Channel
Internet

Base Station Mobile

Feedback channel information

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Prediction of Wireless Channels
 Use current and previous channel estimates to
predict future channel response
 Overcome feedback delay
 Adaptation based on predicted channel response
 Lessen amount of feedback
 Predicted channel response may replace direct channel
feedback

h(n+) ?
h(n)
… h(n-)
h(n-p)

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 Related Work
 Prediction on each subcarrier [Forenza & Heath, 2002]
 Each subcarrier treated as a narrowband autoregressive
process [Duel-Hallen et al., 2000]
 Prediction using pilot subcarriers [Sternad & Aronsson, 2003]
 Used unbiased power prediction [Ekman, 2002]
 Prediction on time-domain channel taps [Schafhuber &
Matz, 2005]
 Used adaptive prediction filters

Pilot Subcarriers

IFFT
… …
Data Subcarriers Time-domain channel taps
4
 Comparison of OFDM channel
prediction approaches
[Wong, Forenza, Heath, & Evans, 2004]

 Compared three approaches in a unified

framework
 Complexity comparison

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 Summary of Main Contributions
 Formulated OFDM channel prediction
problem as a 2-dimensional frequency
estimation problem
 Proposed a 2-step 1-dimensional prediction
approach
 Lower complexity with minimal performance loss
 Rich literature of 1-D sinusoidal parameter
estimation
 Allows decoupling of computations between
receiver and transmitter

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 System Model
 OFDM baseband received signal
 Perfect timing and carrier synchronization and inter-
symbol interference elimination by the cyclic prefix
 Flat passband for transmit and receiver filters over
used subcarriers

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 Deterministic Channel Model
 Outdoor mobile macrocell scenario
 Far-field scatterer (plane wave assumption)
 Linear motion with constant velocity
 Small time window (a few wavelengths)

 Used in modeling and simulation of wireless

channels [Jakes 74], ray-tracing channel
characterization [Rappaport 02]

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 Pilot-based Transmission
 Comb pilot pattern

 Least-squares
channel estimates f …

Df

Dt t

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 Prediction via 2-D
Frequency Estimation
 If we accurately estimate parameters in our channel
model, we could effectively extrapolate the fading
process
 Estimation and extrapolation period should be within
time window where model parameters are stationary
 A two-dimensional complex sinusoids in noise
estimation
 Well studied in radar, sonar, and other array signal
processing applications [Kay, 1988]
 A lot of algorithms available, but are computationally
prohibitive

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 Two-step One-dimensional
Frequency Estimation
 Typically, a lot of propagation paths share the same
resolvable time delay
 We can thus break down the problem into two steps
1. Time-delay estimation
2. Doppler-frequency estimation

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 Step 1 – Time-delay estimation

 Estimate autocorrelation function using the modified

covariance averaging method [Stoica & Moses, 1997]
 Estimate the number of paths L using minimum
description length rule [Xu, Roy, & Kailath, 1994]
 Estimate the time delays using Estimation of
Signal Parameters via Rotational Invariance
Techniques (ESPRIT) [Roy & Kailath, 1989]
 Estimate the amplitudes cp(l) using least-squares
 Discrete Fourier Transform of these amplitudes could be
used to estimate channel
 More accurate than conventional approaches, and similar to
parametric channel estimation method in [Yang, et al., 2001]

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Step 2 – Doppler freq. estimation

 Using complex amplitudes cp(l) estimated from Step

1 as the left hand side for (2), we determine
the rest of the parameters
 Similar steps as Step 1 can be applied for the
parameter estimation for each path p
 Using the estimated parameters, predict channel as

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IEEE 802.16 Simulation

0.5

0.4
Path power

0.3

0.2

0.1

0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3
Time delay x 10
-6

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 Prediction Snapshot
Predicted channel trace, Predicted channel 1/5  ahead, SNR
SNR = 10 dB = 10 dB

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 MSE Performance
Prediction Normalized MSE 2  ahead Prediction Normalized MSE, SNR=10 dB
-5 -8

-10 -9

-15
-10

-20
Normalized MSE in dB

Normalized MSE in dB
-11
-25
-11.5004 -12
-30
-13
-35
-12.6799
7.484 8.4044
-14
-40
Proposed Method, ML Estimates
-45 -15
Proposed Method, MMSE Estimates
Burg Prediction
-50 -16
10 15 20 25 30 35 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
SNR in dB Prediction length ()

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 Summary

L - No. of paths M - No. of rays per path

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