Pilot-Assisted Channel Estimation for

STBC-Based Wireless MIMO-OFDM Systems

Bo-Chiuan Chen
Dept. of Electrical Engineering
National Chi Nan University
Nantou, Taiwan 545, R.O.C.
s3323527@ncnu.edu.tw
Wen-Jeng Lin
Dept. of Electrical Engineering
National Chi Nan University
Nantou, Taiwan 545, R.O.C.
s3323541@ncnu.edu.tw
∗
Jung-Shan Lin
Dept. of Electrical Engineering
National Chi Nan University
Nantou, Taiwan 545, R.O.C.
jslin@ncnu.edu.tw

ABSTRACT many advantages instead of conventional single-carrier cases.

With equipping multiple antennas at both transmitter and
receiver ends, the desired signals in the OFDM wireless com-
munications could be transmitted and received through mul-
tiple uncorrelated channels for achieving twofold benefits
and high flexibility. For this kind of MIMO-OFDM sys-
tems, if the assistance of channel estimation is under con-
sideration, the overall system performance is able to be fur-
ther enhanced. This paper proposed a pilot-symbol-assisted
channel estimation technique for MIMO architecture by as-
signing known pilot symbols orthogonally between different
transmitting antennas. The mixed transmitted signals could
be completely separated at the receiver end due to the or-
thogonal property of pilot blocks. Some simulation results
are given to illustrate the superior overall performance that
can be achieved by the proposed channel estimation algo-
rithm in MIMO-OFDM systems under COST 207 mobile
wireless environments.
Categories and Subject Descriptors
G.1.1 [Numerical Analysis]: Interpolation—interpolation
formulas
General Terms
Algorithms, performance
Keywords
OFDM, MIMO, channel estimation, pilot symbols
1. INTRODUCTION
The idea of multi-carrier modulation (MCM) techniques
is a good transmission concept that can be adopted to gain
∗J.-S. Lin is also with the Graduate Institute of Communi-
cation Engineering, National Chi Nan University, R.O.C.
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The optimal schemes of MCM techniques are orthogonal
frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) [1, 2] transmis-
sion techniques which have widely attracted for research
and application nowadays. OFDM systems could cope with
frequency-selective fading effect caused by multipath prop-
agation delay spread through dividing available bandwidth
into many sub-bands to create a frequency-flat fading chan-
nel condition. Then, each portion of data is carried through
each subcarrier for signals transmission. Therefore, the band-
width could be saved quite a little due to orthogonally over-
lapped subcarriers. In addition, OFDM could be easily im-
plemented by manipulating fast Fourier transform (FFT)
algorithm with an acceptable cost.
Multiple man-made uncorrelated or independent wireless
propagation channels could be achieved by equipping mul-
tiple antennas at both transmitter and receiver ends with
an appropriate separation distance. The advantage of using
multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) [3, 4, 5] architec-
ture is to provide more opportunities to transmit and re-
ceive replicas of same signals for ensuring high bit error rate
(BER) performance, that is, achieving high linkage qual-
ity of service (QoS). It is exactly the concept of spatial di-
versity (SD) techniques. Here, Alamouti’s space-time block
coding (STBC) [6, 7] SD criterion is utilized for combining
with OFDM schemes to construct the so-called STBC-based
wireless MIMO-OFDM systems which are expected to ob-
tain twofold benefits.
Pilot-symbol-assisted channel estimation (PSACE) tech-
niques have been successfully applied to OFDM systems for
obtaining a remarkable enhancement. In [8] and [9], they
had provided the performance comparison among various
designs of pilot assignments using different kinds of mod-
ulation schemes and interpolation techniques. For MIMO-
OFDM systems, PSACE methods based on least squares
(LS) and minimum mean-squared error (MMSE) algorithms
had been investigated in [10, 11, 12]. In [10], the advan-
tages of adopting MIMO-configured structures for OFDM
had been demonstrated. In [11], the difference between zero-
form and nonzero-form pilot assignments was analyzed for
the design criterion. Another investigation for adopting dif-
ferent antenna configurations had been illustrated in [12] for
general extension cases.
In addition, the arrangement and properties of pilots for
multi-antenna structures are certainly different from that of
single-antenna cases. Therefore, some modifications must
be considered for extending PSACE techniques in MIMO-
 Pilot x̄(1) (t) 0 1 Q−1
Insertion AWGN Ns NCP τ τ ··· τ
Ns Ts (1)
Data QPSK 2×2 IFFT Channel 1 (1)
α0 (t)
(1)
α1 (t) αQ − 1 (t)
Source MOD.
STBC
ENC. IFFT Channel 2
Σ
Σ

Data QPSK ML STBC

FFT Σ r̄(t)
Sink DeMod. Detection DEC.
Σ
w(t)
Pilot
Extraction
(2) (2) (2)
α0 (t) α1 (t) αQ − 1 (t)
Pilots on Tx.1 x̄(2) (t)
L.I. Channel
Ns NCP τ τ ··· τ
Pilots on Tx.2
L.I. Estimation Ns Ts 0 1 Q−1

Figure 1: The system model of STBC-based wireless Figure 2: Uncorrelated tapped-delay line transver-
2ISO-OFDM transceivers. sal filters for two channels.

OFDM schemes [13, 14]. However, the importance of or-
thogonality of pilots between multiple transmitters did not
be verified, and the detail for recovery of combined signals in
the receiver end was also absent in the previous studies. In
this paper, this gap is filled while an efficient channel estima-
tion algorithm for MIMO-OFDM is proposed for achieving
superior results. The remainder of this paper is organized as
follows: The adopted system and channel models in MIMO-
OFDM systems are concisely described in Section 2. The
assignment pattern of pilot symbols and proposed channel
estimation algorithm are completely presented in Section 3.
The comparative simulation results for performance demon-
stration under COST 207 mobile wireless environments are
analyzed in Section 4. Some concluding remarks are finally
given in Section 5.
2. MIMO-OFDM SYSTEM MODEL
Based on OFDM transmission schemes, two transmitting
antennas and one receiving antenna are configured to form
the 2ISO transmit diversity as [6]. The adopted system
model of STBC-based wireless 2ISO-OFDM transceivers has
been established and illustrated in Fig. 1 completely. The
signaling procedure is described as follows: The single QPSK-
modulated symbol stream is first separated into two STBC-
coded symbol streams by Alamouti’s 2 × 2 STBC SD cri-
terion for forwarding coded replicas of same data blocks
in space and time. Throughout this paper, one block is
consisted of two consecutive symbols for the convenience
of expression. After inserting known pilot symbols accord-
ing to specific pilot patterns, the transmitted signals on
each branch are modulated and multiplexed through in-
verse FFT (IFFT) by the unit of an OFDM symbol. The
OFDM frames including the extension of cyclic prefix (CP)
are then launched into two wireless channels for data trans-
mission. The STBC-coded signals with pilots of the n-th
OFDM symbol carried on the k-th OFDM subcarrier which
are forwarded through the β-th transmitting antenna can be
expressed in the following:
 are firstly removing the CP portion and passing through
 Pilot: X (β) [n, kp ], kp = 0, 1, · · · , Np − 1,
(β)
X [n, k] =
 Data: X (β) [n, k], otherwise.
β = 1, 2; k = 0, 1, · · · , Ns − 1; kp = 0, 1, · · · , Np − 1.
where the kp -th inserted pilot symbol is presented by index
kp ; Ns and Np represent the total number of OFDM subcar-
riers and used pilots, respectively. Note that the assignment
of pilot symbols is according to orthogonal comb-type pilot
patterns. Except the part of “pilot”, the total number of
available data symbols is equal to (Ns − Np ) shown as the
“data” portion.
In Fig. 2, the two uncorrelated wireless channels could be
modeled by two tapped-delay line transversal filters with
2Q mutually independent time-varying Rayleigh faders re-
ferring to certain power delay profiles. Due to the uncor-
related channel conditions, the total effect caused by two
propagation channels reflecting on the received signals is ac-
tually a summation result [15]. Therefore, channel impulse
responses of the β-th wireless channel h(β) (t; τ ) can be de-
scribed as:
Q−1
X (β)
h(β) (t; τ ) = αq (t) δ(t − qτ ), β = 1, 2, (2)
q=0
and the continuous-time received signals at time instance t
can be represented as follows:
Nt
X
r̄(t) = h(β) (t; τ ) ∗ x̄(β) (t) + w(t)
β=1
Nt Q−1
X X
= α(β)
q (t) x̄
(β)
(t − qτ ) + w(t), Nt = 2. (3)
β=1 q=0
where the total path number of a single wireless channel is
(β)
equal to Q, the corresponding tap gains are αq (t), the de-
lay spread interval of the q-th tap is qτ as well as the total
number of transmitting branches is represented by Nt . Af-
ter undergoing wireless channel effect, the continuous-time
received signals r̄(t) could be expressed as the combination
contributed from two transmitted signals x̄(1) (t) and x̄(2) (t)
simultaneously with corresponding noise terms w(t).
At the receiver end, the signals’ recovery procedure is ex-
plained as Fig. 1: The equivalent baseband received signals
FFT for demultiplexing and demodulating as the result ex-
pressed as follows. The part of received pilot symbols R[n, kp ]
(1)
are extracted according to specified pilot patterns block by
block. Then the received pilot blocks are operated with
the uncorrupted pilot blocks for estimating the channel fre-
 k 2Nr
Tx.1 Nr = Ns /Np
n DDDDDD DD DDDDDD
···
···
···
···
n: OFDM symbol index D: data symbols
k: subcarrier index
k 2Nr
Tx.2
n rating of the mixed transmitted pilot symbols from different
DDDDDD DD ··· DDDDDD
···
···
···
: orthogonal pilot blocks
Figure 3: The assignment of comb-type pilot pattern
with orthogonal property.
quency responses (CFR’s) on all pilot positions.
Pilot: R[n, kp ], kp = 0, 1, · · · , Np − 1,
( ∗
R[n, k] =
Data: R[n, k], otherwise.
After linear interpolation, the estimated CFR’s on all data
positions are gotten. The mixed data blocks now can be sep-
arated completely by a liner combination procedure, that is
actually for STBC decoding, after removing the part of pi-
lot symbols. Finally, the most likely results are chosen by
maximum-likelihood detection (MLD) and the QPSK de-
modulator would recover the bit streams from the detected
results.
3. CHANNEL ESTIMATION ALGORITHM
In order to utilize the advantages of PSACE techniques for
2ISO-OFDM systems, some modifications must be consid-
ered in the following: First of all, the amount of total pilot
symbols will be multiplied by the number of transmitting an-
tennas, it means that more pilots are necessary for MIMO
architecture. Secondly, pilot blocks transmitted on different
antennas must be orthogonal to each other to facilitate the
decoupling of multiple mixed data blocks by utilizing the
estimated CFR’s after STBC decoding, then the separated
symbols could be correctly detected by MLD individually to
recover the original transmitted signals. Thirdly, how to as-
sign the pilot blocks on two transmitting branches while the
inter-transmitter-antenna-interference (ITAI) between each
other could be completely avoided is also discussed in detail
here.
In this paper, comb-type pilot patterns are adopted for
channel estimation in STBC-based wireless 2ISO-OFDM sys-
tems to provide good QoS in high-speed mobile communi-
cation environments. For achieving the purpose, pilot as-
signment fashions would be adjusted to satisfy the follow-
ing criterions: The allocation of pilot symbols should be
equal-spaced and equal-powered with orthogonality prop-
erty, moreover, the minimal number of used pilot symbols
must be greater than or at least equal to the total tap num-
ber of channel models [11, 12, 13, 14]. The proper pilot as-
signment between two transmitting branches has been well
designed in Fig. 3.
The orthogonal comb-type pilot pattern on two transmit-
ting antennas is fully assigned at all OFDM symbol index
n with a repeated period 2Nr between OFDM subcarrier
index k. Two successive pilot symbols are assigned together
to form a pilot block and the spacing between blocks is dis-
tributed equally in frequency grids. Due to the unity trans-
mission power constraint, halved-power for each pilot sym-
bol in 2ISO configurations is very suitable. In addition, the
orthogonality property is indeed essential to facilitate sepa-
branches. With the assignment, the CFR’s on pilot posi-
tions of two uncorrelated wireless channels could be able to
estimate correctly.
The mathematical definition of orthogonality between pi-
lot blocks is given as follows. For instance, if the received
pilot block transmitted from branch one is operated with the
conjugate version of itself, the result will be the power sum of
(β)
these two pilot symbols which is called block power Pblock .
However, the result will be always zero while pilot blocks
from different transmitting antennas are operated crosswise
to each other. The operations of pilot blocks at indices kp
and kp + 1 on the β-th antenna are presented as follows:
(β)
Pblock ≡ X (β) [n, kp ] X (β) [n, kp ]
(4) ∗
+ X (β) [n, kp + 1] X (β) [n, kp + 1]; (5)
∗
X (1) [n, kp ] X (2) [n, kp ]
∗
+ X (1) [n, kp + 1] X (2) [n, kp + 1] = 0,
∗
X (2) [n, kp ] X (1) [n, kp ]
∗
+ X (2) [n, kp + 1] X (1) [n, kp + 1] = 0. (6)
There are two groups of pilot assignment both can satisfy
the previous orthogonal property. They are called “nonzero”
and “zero” pilot forms [11], respectively, as well as the ma-
jor difference between them is also analyzed as follows: For
nonzero-form cases, the pilot symbols are simultaneously
transmitted from two branches during every symbol inter-
val. For zero-form cases, the specific pilot blocks are al-
ternatively sent through two transmitting antennas, that is,
antenna one is consecutively transmitting two pilots at first
block while antenna two keeps silence, and the situation will
be contrary during next block period.
Due to the alternately transmitted pilot symbols, the fash-
ion of zero-form assignment can utilize full unity power for
transmission while the ITAI terms would never be occurred.
However, less channel information of CFR’s is collected than
that of nonzero-form cases because half the chances of chan-
nel estimation are performed. In other words, the pilot spac-
ing here is enlarged equal to 4Nr and the degraded estima-
tion performance could be expected at the same time.
Although both of them can hold the orthogonality prop-
erty shown as (5) and (6), we still should not waste all the
available pilot tones for achieving superior channel estima-
tion results. On the contrary, the patterns of pilot assign-
ment without orthogonal properties are definitely unable to
be adopted. In addition, the performance resulting from
the pilot assignments which own same properties is almost
identical in spite of the setting of complex pilot values. Fi-
nally, the orthogonal nonzero-form pilot assignments will be
adopted in this paper.
After accomplishing the pilot assignments on two branches,
 channel estimation techniques for STBC-based 2ISO-OFDM
systems are then developed. At the receiver end, the portion
of pilot blocks are firstly extracted from the FFT-processed
baseband received signals R[n, k] according to specific pi-
lot patterns block by block. The pilot blocks, R[n, kp ] and
R[n, kp +1], can be expressed as the combination of two pairs
known pilots which are transmitted from different anten-
nas passing through two uncorrelated channels, then adding
with the corresponding noise terms:
R[n, kp ] = X (1) [n, kp ] H (1) [n, kp ]
+ X (2) [n, kp ] H (2) [n, kp ] + W [n, kp ],
(1) (1)
R[n, kp + 1] = X [n, kp + 1] H [n, kp + 1]
(2) (2)
+ X [n, kp + 1] H [n, kp + 1]
+ W [n, kp + 1].
The principal notion of the proposed channel estimation
algorithm is to manipulate the orthogonality between pilot
blocks for performing channel estimation in 2ISO-OFDM
systems while the mixed transmission signals could be re-
covered correctly. Therefore, the extracted pilot blocks are
operated with the conjugate version of uncorrupted pilot
blocks which are assigned for transmitting antenna one and
antenna two sequentially. The algorithm is now illustrated
as follows:
∗
Ĥ (β) [n, kp ] = X (β) [n, kp ] R[n, kp ]
∗ Finally, all the CFR’s on data positions, Ĥe [n, k] and
+ X (β) [n, kp + 1] R[n, kp + 1].
For the sake of obtaining the estimation results, the CFR’s
are assumed identical between two successive subcarriers
and vary from block to block in frequency direction. Af-
terwards, the actual and estimated CFR’s are presented as
follows, respectively:
H (β) [n, kp ] = H (β) [n, kp + 1] = H (β) [n, 2kb ],
Ĥ (β) [n, kp ] = Ĥ (β) [n, kp + 1] = Ĥ (β) [n, 2kb ],
Np
kb = 0, 1, · · · ,
− 1; β = 1, 2.
2 lated for achieving transmitter diversity. The total number
This kind of channel condition is called “block flat-fading”
and its physical meaning indicates that the channel envi-
ronments are tending to light multipath effect, that is, less
delay path number and short rms delay spread interval. Un-
der this important assumption, the CFR’s at block index kb ,
that is at pilot index kp = 2kb , of the β-th channel could be
estimated due to the orthogonality property in (5) and (6).
After expanding (8) by using the pilot blocks from transmit-
ting antenna one, the estimation results of the 1st channel
can be performed in the following:
Ĥ (1) [n, kp ]
Table 1: Model of 4-path RA, σrms ≃ 0.093 µs
Path Delay (µs) Power (dB)
0 0.0 0.00
1 0.2 −7.99
2 0.4 −15.98
3 0.6 −23.97
After reformulating (11) using (5) and (6), the final estima-
tion results can be simplified expressed as follows:
(1)
Ĥ (1) [n, kp ] = Pblock H (1) [n, kp ] + W̄ (1) [n, kp ], (12)
similar results of CFR’s for the 2nd channel can be obtained
through performing the same procedure repeatedly by using
the pilot blocks from transmitting branch two:
(7)
(2)
Ĥ (2) [n, kp ] = Pblock H (2) [n, kp ] + W̄ (2) [n, kp ], (13)
where the total transmission power of pilot blocks is unity,
(1) (2)
Pblock = Pblock = 1, as well as W̄ (1) [n, kp ] and W̄ (2) [n, kp ]
both represent the noise and interference terms. Through
the proposed channel estimation algorithm, the CFR’s of
two uncorrelated channels on all pilot positions, Ĥ (1) [n, kp ]
and Ĥ (2) [n, kp ], could be estimated accurately and sepa-
rately while high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) conditions are
achieved under frequency-flat fast fading channel environ-
ments.
(1)
(8) (2)
Ĥe [n, k], could be completely acquired through first-order
linear interpolation techniques. The available data symbols
then could be reconstructed individually after performing
the procedures of STBC decoding and MLD detection.
4. COMPARATIVE SIMULATIONS
(9) The simulation parameters for STBC-based wireless 2ISO-
OFDM transmission systems are now listed in the following:
(10) A QPSK-modulated OFDM scheme with 2ISO structures of
using two transmitting antennas and one receiving antenna
is adopted. Alamouti’s 2 × 2 STBC SD criterion is manipu-
of subcarriers Ns is 1024 with NCP = 128, and the duration
of an OFDM symbol T and cyclic extension TCP is 204.8 µs
and 25.6 µs, respectively. The central frequency fc is set to
be 1.9 GHz, transmission data rate Rbit could be achieved
10 Mbps and bandwidth W of 5.625 MHz is used. The pi-
lot symbols are assigned according to comb-type pilot pat-
terns as well as the orthogonal and nonzero pilot properties
are considered. Furthermore, the total transmission power
is constrained to unity. The simulated channel models are
specified according to COST 207 4-path rural area (RA), 6-
path typical urban (TU) and 6-path bad urban (BU), whose
environment parameters are presented in Table 1, Table 2
 2  2  and Table 3, respectively.
=
 (1)  (1) (1)
X [n, kp ] + X [n, kp + 1] H [n, kp ] +
  In order to investigate the limitation of the proposed chan-
nel estimation algorithm, BER performance is now sequen-
 tially observed in 4-path RA, 6-path TU and 6-path BU
∗
X (1) [n, kp ] X (2) [n, kp ] + Rayleigh fading channel models. In Fig. 4, BER perfor-
mance under 4-path RA with pilot-to-data ration (PDR)
∗
 equal to 1/32, that is using 32 pilot tones for channel estima-
X (1) [n, kp + 1] X (2) [n, kp + 1] H (2) [n, kp ] + tion of total 1024 subcarriers, is very excellent at low mobile
∗ ∗
speed. In expectation, the performance is degraded while
X (1) [n, kp ] W [n, kp ] + X (1) [n, kp + 1] W [n, kp + 1]. (11) the vehicle velocity is increased. Even though the speed is
 4−path RA fading channel, PDR = 1/32
0
Table 2: Model of 6-path TU, σrms ≃ 0.616 µs 10
v = 120 km/h
Path Delay (µs) Power (dB) v = 80 km/h
v = 40 km/h
0 0.0 0.00 −1
10
v = 20 km/h
1 0.2 −0.87 v = 3 km/h

2 0.6 −2.61 −2
10
3 1.6 −6.95
4 2.4

BER
−10.42 −3
10
5 5.0 −21.71
−4
10

Table 3: Model of 6-path BU, σrms ≃ 2.047 µs −5

10
Path Delay (µs) Power (dB)
0 0.0 0.00
−6
10
1 0.4 −1.74 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
SNR = Eb/N0 [dB]
2 1.0 −4.34
3 1.6 −6.95
4 5.0 −3.01 Figure 4: BER comparison at different mobile ve-
5 6.6 −9.96 locity in 4-path RA channel with PDR = 1/32.

4−path RA fading channel, PDR = 1/4

0
accelerated to 120 km/h, the BER level could still achieve 10
v = 120 km/h
about 10−4 as SNR is in excess of 30 dB. Furthermore, the v = 80 km/h
PDR could be again increased to 1/4 for more observation −1
10
v = 40 km/h
v = 20 km/h
in the same channel model. As the result shown in Fig. 5, v = 3 km/h
the BER levels are all slightly improved while velocity is −2
10
under 80 km/h, especially for the situations around middle
mobile speed. However, the performance of low-speed cases
BER

−3
10
only raises little, this is due to that the PDR at 1/32 is
already enough for performing channel estimation well in 4-
−4
path RA. Some concluding remarks are recorded: For 4-path 10

RA environments, the most proper amount of PDR would

be 1/32. Pilots are merely occupied a very little portion
of usable subcarriers. It implies that the estimation results
are very efficient as well as the proposed channel estimation
algorithm could perform very well.
The amount of needed pilots would be further increased
again due to that the multipath effect in 6-path TU chan-
nel environments must be heavier than that of 4-path RA
cases. The most proper PDR selection for channel estima-
tion under 6-path TU is equal to 1/4. As the PDR is fur-
ther increased, the improvement could be probably inferred
very little, however, the transmission data rate would be
significantly decreased. Hence, we really suggest that the
PDR would not be larger than 1/4 for achieving an efficient
data transmission in all kinds of channel environments. The
BER performance resulting from the proposed channel es-
timation algorithm in 6-path TU channel conditions with
1/4-PDR at different mobile speed is around over the range
of 10−4 ∼ 10−6 BER level. The results displayed in Fig. 6
are still very good.
Another comparison between Fig. 5 and Fig. 6 is illus-
trated. Under the same 1/4-PDR, BER performance in 4-
path RA and 6-path TU environments is compared as fol-
lows: Due to the multipath effect of TU is severer than that
of RA, the BER levels under RA channel conditions are all
expected better than that under TU cases at the same mo-
bile velocity. Especially, the difference is so obvious while
the speed is under 40 km/h, on the contrary, the BER levels
in RA and TU cases are both very close to 10−4 while the
speed is increased to 80 km/h.
More frequency-selective fading channel environments as
6-path BU are presented for the examination of the proposed
−5
10
−6
10
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
SNR = Eb/N0 [dB]
Figure 5: BER comparison at different mobile ve-
locity in 4-path RA channel with PDR = 1/4.
channel estimation algorithm in Fig. 7. Due to the severer
multipath effect than that of TU, the PDR must be highly
increased to 1/2 for achieving acceptable BER performance.
However, the performance is again more degraded around
10−4 at all speeds than the results under TU situations.
Maybe this case is a good reference for investigating the
limitation of the proposed channel estimation algorithm.
For the proposed channel estimation algorithm adopting
orthogonal comb-type pilot assignments, STBC-based wire-
less 2ISO-OFDM transceivers could be well handled in both
4-path RA and 6-path TU mobile wireless channel environ-
ments to achieve superior BER performance. The appropri-
ate number of pilot symbols for COST 207 RA, TU and BU
is suggested to be 32, 256 and 512, can the equivalent per-
centage of transmission data rate corresponding to the three
scenarios can achieve 96.875%, 75% and 50%, respectively.
The realization of PSACE techniques for MIMO-configured
schemes has been well modified as well as the simulation re-
sults have demonstrated that BER performance can be dra-
matically improved by STBC-based wireless 2ISO-OFDM
transmission systems with an acceptable cost.
 0
6path−TU fading channel, PDR = 1/4 multimedia communications, Artech House, Boston,
10
v = 80 km/h 2000.
v = 60 km/h
−1 v = 40 km/h
[2] O. Edfors, M. Sandell, J.-J. van de Beek, D. Landström
10
v = 20 km/h and F. Sjöberg, “An introduction to orthogonal
v=3 km/h
frequency-division multiplexing,” Research Report
−2
10 TULEA at the Division of Signal Processing, Luleå
University of Technology, September 1996.
BER

−3
10 [3] H. W. Yang, “A road to future broadband wireless
access: MIMO-OFDM-based air interface,” IEEE
−4
10 Communications Magazine, 43(1):53-60, January 2005.
[4] G. L. Stüber, J. R. Barry, S. W. McLaughlin, Y. G. Li,
−5
10
M. A. Ingram and T. G. Pratt, “Broadband
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of the IEEE, 92(2):271-294, February 2004.
10
0 5 10 15 20
SNR = Eb/N0 [dB]
25 30 35 40 [5] D. Gesbert, M. Shafi, D. S. Shiu, P. J. Smith and
A. Naguib, “From theory to practice: an overview of
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Figure 6: BER comparison at different mobile ve- Journal on Selected Areas in Communications,
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0
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10
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−3
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10
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−5
10
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−6
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10
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ing the pilot symbols between multiple transmitters, the in frequency domain for channel estimation in
mixed transmitted signals can be completely separated and MIMO-OFDM systems in mobile wireless channels,”
accurately recovered at the receiver end. Therefore, an effi- IEEE 59th Vehicular Technology Conference,
cient channel estimation algorithm has been developed with 2:608-612, May 2004.
the particularly orthogonal pilot pattern for improving the [13] Z. S. Wu, J. Q. He and G. X. Gu, “Design of optimal
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selective fading channel conditions, the crucial block flat- systems,” IEEE Wireless Communications and
fading assumption of the proposed algorithm would become Networking Conference, 1:12-17, March 2005.
more and more unreasonable. In addition, the performance [14] R. Negi and J. Cioffi, “Pilot tone selection for channel
degradation of BER levels is going to be emerged at the estimation in a mobile OFDM system,” IEEE
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