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Review of Channel Estimation for Wireless

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 ISSN : 0256-4602

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Technical Review
Volume 29 No. 4 Jul-Aug 2012

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 Review of Channel Estimation for Wireless
Communication Systems
Olutayo O. Oyerinde and Stanley H. Mneney
Department of Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering Discipline, School of Engineering, University of KwaZulu-Natal,
Durban, 4041, South Africa

Abstract
Wireless communication systems have evolved over the ages. However, there are some undesirable effects
of a wireless communication channel on the signals transmitted through it which are caused by the physical
properties of the channel. These in turn always result in attenuation, distortion, delays, and phase shift of
the signals arriving at the receiver end of the communication system. Consequently, there is a need to pro-
vide perfect and uptodate estimate of the channel, in order to compensate for these effects, and for accu-
ratesignal demodulation, equalization, decoding, and a host of other baseband processing applications at
the receiver end of the systems. In this article, a review of the various channel estimation techniques is pro-
vided. This review will be of assistance in reaching a compromised decision regarding channel estimation
techniques to be employed in any wireless communication systems being developed.
Keywords
CIR models, Channel estimation techniques, Fading channels, Wireless channel.

1. Introduction as a deep fade and may eventually lead to a temporary

Wireless communications is one of the most active areas
of technology development and a rapidly growing
branch of the wider field of communications systems.
It is called wireless because it involves the use of wire-
less channels rather than wireline channels. This rapid
growth has been coupled closely with the technological
advances of our time. It is worth noting that telecommu-
nications in the 21stcentury is increasingly relying on the
wireless link. This is because wireless communication has
made possible a variety of services ranging from voice
to data and now to multimedia.
The undesirable effects of a wireless communication
channel on the signals transmitted through the channel
are as a result of the physical properties of the channel.
The transmitted signals interact with the environment in
a very complex way. In the channel between the trans-
mitter and the receiver, there are always reflections due
to large objects, diffraction of the electromagnetic waves
around obstructing objects as well as signal scattering.
The overall effects of these interactions result in many
signal copies (or multipath signals) with different attenu-
ation, distortion, delays, and phase shift arriving at the
receiver. These multipath signals can interfere with each
other constructively or destructively. In the case when
destructive interference occurs, the signal power can be
significantly diminished. This phenomenon is termed
as fading. In the case of strong destructive inference,
the channel will experience what is always referred to
failure of communication as a result of severe drop in the
channel signaltonoise ratio (SNR). Basically, there are
two types of fading effects that are associated with wire-
less communication channels. These include largescale
fading and smallscale fading[1]. Largescale fading cor-
responds to the average signal power attenuation or path
loss attributable to motion over large areas. Smallscale
fading is due to dramatic alterations in amplitude and
phase of transmitted signal that can mostly be experi-
enced due to slight changes in the spatial separation
between a receiver and transmitter. Smallscale fading
is referred to as Rayleigh fading provided the multiple
reflective paths are large in number and there is no
line of sight signal component; hence, the envelope of
the received signal can be statistically described by a
Rayleigh probability density function (pdf). However,
if there is a dominant nonfading signal component
present, such as a lineofsight propagation path, such
small scale fading envelope can be illustrated by a Rician
pdf[1]. Doppler shift is another property of wireless com-
munication channel. Doppler shift is caused as a result of
relative motion between the transmitter and the receiver
as well as motion of any other objects in the wireless
channel. This also results in the timevarying nature of
the wireless channel. Figure 1 [2] shows a typical wire-
less communication channel with multipath effect. As a
result of different environmental paths, each multipath
signal arriving at the base station from the mobile trans-
mitters, local scatterers, and the remote dominant reflec-
tor will have different amplitude, carrier phase shift,

282 IETE TECHNICAL REVIEW | Vol 29 | ISSUE 4 | JUL-AUG 2012

 Oyerinde OO and Mneney SH: Review of Channel Estimation for Wireless Communication Systems
Figure 1: Multipath propagation in wireless communication channel [2].
time delay, and Doppler shift. If the transmitters are in
motion, these multipath signals parameters will also be
timevarying.
One of the major challenges to optimum performance of
wireless communication systems is means of providing
accurate channel state information (CSI) at the receiver
end of the systems for coherent detection of the trans-
mitted signal. If the CSI is not available at the receiver,
the transmitted signal could only be demodulated and
detected through a noncoherent method such as the dif-
ferential demodulation technique. However, the employ-
ment of noncoherent detection method is at theexpense
of about 34dB loss in SNR compared with using the
coherent detection method[3]. In order to eliminate
such a huge loss, research efforts have been directed
toward development of channel estimation techniques
to provide CSI at the receiver for coherent detection of
the transmitted information in wireless communication
systems. This paper therefore presents a review of some
channel estimation techniques in use for wireless com-
munication systems.
The rest of the paper is organized as follows. Channel
Models are described in Section 2. In Section 3, various
channel estimation techniques are reviewed. Conclusion
of the paper is given in Section 4.
2. Channel Models
Channel model, according to[4], is the bread and butter
for telecommunication engineers. This is because the
IETE TECHNICAL REVIEW | Vol 29 | ISSUE 4 | JUL-AUG 2012
foundation on which mobile communication s ystems
is developed is the channel model. In this section,
channel impulse response (CIR) models are presented.
The impulse response of a channel is essential for the
characterization of the channel. It contains all the infor-
mation necessary to simulate and analyze any type of
transmitted signal in the channel. By way of definition,
the CIR can be defined as the instantaneous state of the
dispersive channel encountered. It corresponds to the
vector of the instantaneous amplitudes that is associated
with different multipath components.
Let the transmitted signal s(t) in a wireless communication
link characterized by multipath fading be given as
{ }
s(t) = Re x(t)e jct ,(1)
Where, the complex signal x(t) is the equivalent base-
band form of s(t) , wc=2pfc is a carrier/center frequency,
and Re{} denotes the real part. The received signal r(t)
can be written as
M 1
r(t) = m (t)s(t m (t))
m= 0
M 1
= Re m (t)e jwc m (t ) x(t m (t))e jwct ,(2)
m= 0
Where, m (t) , t m (t) , and M are the timevariant com-
plex amplitude, the timevariant delay associated with
the mth path, and the number of paths, respectively.
Assuming that the received signal is corrupted by
283
 Oyerinde OO and Mneney SH: Review of Channel Estimation for Wireless Communication Systems

additive bandlimited Gaussian noise that has effective with an individual channel path delay 1 and the one
bandwidth of B(Hz) and a power spectral density of N0 associated with path delay t 2 is c haracterizedby[7]:
(W/Hz), the equivalent baseband noise signal w(t) will
be circularly symmetric complex Gaussian noise (i.e., the { }
r ( t , 1 , 2 ) = E 1 (t ) *2 (t t ) .(8)
real and imaginary parts of the noise are independent
Gaussian variables with zero means and equal variance) Furthermore, if the assumption of Uncorrelated Scat-
and has a variance given as tering (US) is applied to (8) which implies that the
amplitude and phase shifts associated with different
{
w2 = N 0 B = E w(t)w * (t) .(3) } CIR delay of t1t2, then the timedomain correlation
function reduces to
The equivalent baseband form of the received signal r(t) ,
corrupted with complex additive white Gaussian noise
r ( t , 1 , 2 ) = r ( t , 1 ) ( 1 2 ) .(9)
w(t) , is then given as[5]
M 1 By setting t = 0 , the function r ( t , 1 ) reduces to
z(t) = m (t)e jwc m (t ) x(t m (t)) + w(t) r ( 0, 1 ) r ( ) , where t = t 1 . This reduced form is
m= 0

known as the multipath intensity profile or delay power
spectrum, or Power Delay Profile (PDP) of the Channel,
= h(t, )x(t )d + w(t),

(4)
and it describes the channels average power output as
a function of the time delay t . The channels PDP is
for all possible delays t { , + } , where h(t , t ) is the useful in determining the CIRs statistical distribution.
equivalent baseband impulse response of the multipath For a timevarying multipath fading channel, the PDP
fading channel at time instant t. The CIR h(t , t ) corre- is obtained from the magnitude square of (5) and it is
sponds to the model usually used for mobile wireless given as[1,8]
channels and is given by
2
M 1
p(t , t ) = h(t , t ) .(10)
h(t , ) = m (t)e jwc m (t ) ( m (t)) ,(5)
m= 0 Examples of different commonly used PDP for COST
207 (European Cooperation in the Fields of Scientific and
Where, d is the Diracs Delta function.
Technical Research) channel models [9,10] are listed in
Table 1.
The corresponding continuous Channel Transfer Func-
tion (CTF) is obtained by taking the Fourier transform
2.2 Discretetime Channel Model
of h(t , t ) with respect to t as[5]:
Let the pulse train transmitted symbol x(t) , with symbol
M 1
rate Ts , that passed through a transmitter filter gTr (t )
H (t , f ) = j 2 ( f + fc ) m ( t )
h(t , )e
j 2 f
d = m (t)e .(6)
m= 0 (typically a root raised cosine Nyquist filter) and a
timevarying CIR h(t , t ) , and corrupted with Gaussian
In a bid to make the mobile channel model mathematically white noise w(t) be represented by
tractable, wide sense stationarity assumption is usually
made for the channel. Achannel is said to be wide sense
stationary (WSS) if the second order statistics of h(t , t ) Table 1: Power delay profile of cost 207 [10]
do not vary with t. If this assumption is made, we have Profile Power delay profile
the usual linear timeinvariant channel and the CIR in Rural area 9.21exp(9.2 ) 0 < 0.7
(5) can then be reduced to[6]:
0 else

M 1
Typical urban exp( ) 0 < 7
h( ) =
m= 0
m e jwc m
( m )  (7)
0 else

Bad urban
0.67exp( ) 0 < 5
2.1 Channel Impulse Response Statistics
0.335exp(5 ) 5 < 10
0 else
In some of the proposed models for wireless mobile chan-
nels, each of the CIR component m associated with an Hilly terrain
3.08exp(3.5 ) 0 <2
individual channel path is always modeled by a WSS nar-
0.1232exp(15 ) 15 < 20
rowband complex Gaussian process[7]. For this type of
0 else
WSS modeled channel, the timedomain correlation func-
tion that characterizes the CIR component m associated Delay is in s

284 IETE TECHNICAL REVIEW | Vol 29 | ISSUE 4 | JUL-AUG 2012

 Oyerinde OO and Mneney SH: Review of Channel Estimation for Wireless Communication Systems

x(t) = x (t nT ) .(11)
n =
n s h [ n, m ] = h [nT , t ] g
s T (mTs t )dt ,(19)

At the receiver, the continuoustime received signal z(t) hence,

after passing through the receiver filter g Rc (t ) , before
sampling is
z [ n] = h [n, m] x [n m] + w[n] ,(20)
m =

z(t) = he (t , t ) x(t) + w(t) = he (t , t )x(t t )dt + w(t) ,(12)

where
Where, * denotes the convolution product, and he (t , t ) is

the timevarying equivalent CIR obtained as
w [ n] = g (t ) w(nT t )dt .(21)
Rc s


he (t , ) = h(t , ) gT ( ) =
h(t , )gT ( )d .(13)
If h [ n, m ] = 0 for all m < 0 and m M , where M is the
In (13), gT (t ) is the convolution product between g Rc (t ) length of the equivalent CIR measured in symbol intervals,
and gTr (t ) given as and the discretetime CIR is written in a vector form as

h [ n ] = h [ n, 0 ] , h [ n, 1] ,..., h [ n, M 1] ,(22)
T
gT (t ) = g Rc (t ) gTr (t ) .(14)

Because of the presence of the radio filters g Rc (t ) and the discretetime received signal z [ n ] of (18) will take
gTr (t ) , the condition of the US is violated. Consequently, the form
the timevarying equivalent CIR he (t , t ) is no longer
WSS. Besides, the noise w(t) in (12) is not white again by M 1

reason of g Rc (t ) at the receiver. By making substitution z [ n ] = h [ n, m ] x [ n m ] + w[n] = hT [ n ] x [ n ] + w[n] (23)

m= 0
for x(t) and he (t , t ) in (12) from (11) and (13), respec-
tively, the received baseband signal is given by In the case where the transmitter and receivers filters
are ignored, the SSCIR of (19) will be given as

z(t) = x
i =
i

h(t , t ) gT (t iTs t )dt + w(t) .(15)
h [ n, m ] = h ( nTs , mTs ) , where 0 m M 1 .(24)

2.3 Samplespaced Channel Impulse Response 2.4 Nonsamplespaced Channel Impulse Response
Model Model
If the continuoustime received signal z(t) of (15) is sam- The SSCIR model presented in Section 2.3 is not fea-
pled at a rate of 1 T = 1 T , the equivalent discretetime sible in the realtime implementation. This is because,
r
for the model to be usable, the receivers filter g Rc (t )
s
representation given as
must be implemented as a channel matched filter in
z [ n ] = z(nTr ) ,(16) order to match the convolution of the transmitters filter
gTr (t ) and the timevarying CIR h(t , t ) . This in turn
can be obtained by substituting (16) into (15) to give as[11] will make the received samples z [ n ] sufficient statis-
tics for adequate recovery of the transmitted samples.
z [ n ] = z(t)|t = nT r However, in reality, the receivers filter g Rc (t ) cannot
be implemented as a channelmatched filter due to the
= x[i] h [ nTr , t ] gT (nTr iTs t )dt + w(nTr ) . (17) fact that the CIR will be timevarying and might not be
i = known a priori, which makes SSCIR model not fit into
the realtime channel condition. Away out of this is to
By substituting m = n i (17) becomes adopt the realistic nonsamplespaced CIR (nonSS CIR)
model presented in this section. In such a realistic chan-

nel scenario, the continuoustime received signal z(t)
z [ n] = x [n m] h [nT , t ] g
m =
s T (mTs t )dt + w [ n ] ,(18)
of (15) is sampled several times (e.g., R > 1 ) per symbol

period such that T < Ts . Hence, there will be R values
where, Ts is the sampling period. of zi at each symbol period n .

The samplespaced discretetime CIR (SSCIR) model is Suppose the received signal z(t) of (15) is sampled
then given as at the rate of R times the sampling rate such that

IETE TECHNICAL REVIEW | Vol 29 | ISSUE 4 | JUL-AUG 2012 285

 Oyerinde OO and Mneney SH: Review of Channel Estimation for Wireless Communication Systems

T is how to provide perfect and uptodate estimate of the

Tr = s R , using a time series representation (TSR) of[12], channel to be used for accurate signal demodulation,
the received sampled zi [ n ] can be given by equalization, decoding, and a host of other baseband
processing applications.
x [ n m ] h nTr R + iT , t gT (mTr R + iTr t )dt
zi [ n ] = In the recent years up till now, research efforts have been
+ wi [ n ] ,
m =
(25) directed toward developing efficient channel estimation
techniques for use in wireless communication systems
Where, the nonSS CIR, represented as R symbolspaced employing different modulation and transmission
timevarying impulse response, is given by schemes. In general, the various techniques for channel
estimation that have been put forward, which can be

used in different technologies of wireless communica-
hi [ n, m ] = h nT + iT , t g (mT + iT t )dt
s r T s r tion systems (such as WiMAX, LTE, WiFi, etc.), can be

categorized into three classes. These include[6] the
i {0, 1, 2,..., R 1} ,(26)
pilotassisted (trainingbased) channel estimation meth-
Then, ods, blind and semiblind channel estimation schemes,
and decisiondirected channel estimation(DDCE) tech-
niques.
zi [ n ] = h [n, m] x [n m] + w [n]
i i i {0, 1, 2,..., R 1} ,
m =
3.1 Pilotassisted Channel Estimation Technique
 (27)
Pilotassisted channel estimation technique, which is also
and known as trainingbased channel estimation scheme, is a
conventional way of obtaining channel estimate for com-
munication systems. In this technique, training sequences
wi [ n ] = g (t ) w(nT + iT t )dt .(28)
Rc s r of data known to the receiver are multiplexed with the

transmitted information symbols at a predetermined
Similarly, to the SSCIR case, by assuming that position before transmission. Such training data are used
hi [ n, m ] = 0 for all m < 0 and m M , the nonSS CIR at the receiver for estimating the CSI corresponding to
can be written in a vector form as its position. The CSI corresponding to the information
data positions is then obtained by means of interpolat-
ing between different channel estimates earlier obtained
hi [ n ] = hi [ n, 0 ] , hi [ n, 1] ,..., hi [ n, M 1] .(29)
T

from the training data sequence.

Consequently, the received sampled zi [ n ] of (23) then
simplifies to
M 1
zi [n] = hi [n, m]x[n m] + wi [n] = hiT [n] xi [n] + wi [n] .(30)
m= 0
From the foregoing, it implies that for each transmitted
symbol x [ n ] , R values of zi observation are obtained
from the received signal. These are made possible by
passing x [ n ] through R different timevarying filters
hi [ n ] . The result of using R > 1 different timevarying
filters in nonsamplespaced channel model is that
the received samples zi [ n ] will be sufficient statistics,
enough for the recovery of the transmitted samples, even
when the receivers filter g Rc (t ) is not channelmatched
filter. This is the reason why nonsamplespaced channel
model is more fit into realistic channel conditions than
the SSCIR model presented in earlier section.
3. Channel Estimation Techniques
No matter the types of channel model employed in any
wireless communication system, the common challenge
Quite a number of works have been reported in litera-
ture with regards to the pilotassisted channel estimation
techniques. In[13,14], pilot symbolassisted modulation
(PSAM) was proposed as an alternative to the use of a
pilot tone earlier in use to mitigate the effects of fading
in wireless communication systems. The various studies
of PSAM in[13,14] were based on simulation and experi-
mental implementation, demonstrating the feasibility of
the approach. The performance analysis of the approach
is provided in[15]. In[16], superimposed pilotassisted
modulation techniques was compared with that of
PSAM, and the conclusion arrived at was that the
superimposed pilotassisted modulation scheme is 4dB
worse in bit error rate (BER) performance than the PSAM
scheme. The two pilotassisted schemes were considered
in the context of slow (quasistatic) fading environ-
ment[17], where it was observed that both approaches
show the same error performance. It was further shown
that a superimposed pilot method achieve better BER
performance in fast fading channel in comparison with
PSAM but with higher computational complexity than
PSAM that employs interpolation method. The exact

286 IETE TECHNICAL REVIEW | Vol 29 | ISSUE 4 | JUL-AUG 2012

 Oyerinde OO and Mneney SH: Review of Channel Estimation for Wireless Communication Systems
BER of multilevel quadrature amplitude modulation
(MQAM) in flat fading with imperfect channel estimates
is investigated in[18]. In the investigation carried out
in[18], the distribution of the amplitude and the esti-
mates of the phase by employing a PSAM technique is
used to obtain the exact BER of the MQAM. An optimal
pilot symbols insertion pattern called time division
multiplexed training with regular periodic placement is
proposed in[19]. The results obtained with the new pat-
tern are compared with that of superimposed training
scheme for a timevarying flat fading channel scenario.
It is concluded that the proposed scheme performs better
at high SNR and for slowly varying channels. However,
it is found out that the superimposed training scheme
exhibits better performance than the proposed scheme
in the other regimes. In[20], adaptive PSAM approaches
that address both channel estimation and prediction
errors in adaptive modulation in order to meet a target
BER are proposed. In the proposed scheme, the authors
optimized the spacing between pilot and data symbols
and the power allocation between pilot and data sym-
bols in order to maximize spectral efficiency. In their
results, the authors claimed that the adaptive PSAM
scheme work well even when the feedback delay is
relatively large.
With respect to the single antennabased multicarrier
modulation (OFDM) systems, different contributions
to trainingbased channel estimation technique have
been published in literature. The early publications on
training symbolsbased channel estimation for OFDM
system only considered periodic onedimensional (1D)
pilot patterns that span the frequency direction only.
However, in some recent publications, the theory of
twodimensional (2D) pilot pattern that is made to span
both the time and frequency directions is exploited[6].
Some of these publications include the 2Dfinite
impulse response (FIR) and cascaded 1DFIR Wiener
filteringbased channel estimation schemes of [2123].
Channel estimators based on piecewiseconstant and
piecewiselinear interpolations between pilots have been
proposed for OFDM systems in[24], with the drawback
that they need a large number of pilots to get satisfactory
performance. This of course poses a costly demand in
terms of bandwidth requirement. Maximum likelihood
(ML) estimator for OFDM system is studied in [25].
In[26], channel interpolation was performed by the 2D
interpolation between pilots, though the approach is
robust to Doppler frequency shifts, it however exhibits
performance degradation with lower Doppler frequen-
cies. Atime domain channel estimation approach, the
Frequency Pilot Time Average, wherein intrasymbol
timedomain averaging of identical parts of the pilot sig-
nal applied for estimation purpose is investigated in[27].
Two types of pilotaided channel estimation schemes,
namely the ML estimator and the Bayesian minimum
IETE TECHNICAL REVIEW | Vol 29 | ISSUE 4 | JUL-AUG 2012
mean squared error e stimator (MMSEE), are compared
in[28]. It is established that the former is simpler to
implement since it requires no information about the
channel statistics, while at low SNR MMSEE is confirmed
to exhibit better performance because it exploits a prior
information about the channel. However, at intermedi-
ate and high SNRs, the two schemes are found to have
similar performance. In[29], windowed Discrete Fourier
Transform (DFT)based MMSE channel estimator is
proposed for OFDM system, and in[30] pilotassisted
channel estimation method based on nonlinear regres-
sion channel models is proposed for OFDM signals in
Rayleigh fading channel environment. In the context of
Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) systems, dif-
ferent contributions have been published with regards
to the pilotassisted channel estimation techniques of
which some of them could be found in[31,32].
In addition, different pilot patterns have been proposed
for the implementation of the pilotassisted channel
estimation techniques for both single antenna and
multiple antenna systems. Optimal training in single
antennabased OFDM systems with respect to the Mean
Square Error (MSE) of the Least Square (LS) channel esti-
mate as well as the MSE at the output of a zeroforcing
receiver employing LS channel estimate is studied in[33].
However, in[34], optimal training for single input single
output OFDM (SISOOFDM) systems with respect to
the capacity based on Linear Minimum Mean Square
Error (LMMSE) channel estimate is proposed. Channel
estimation techniques based on pilot arrangement in
OFDM system are studied in[35], while optimal train-
ing and pilot design for OFDM systems operating over
Rayleigh fading channel is investigated in[36]. In[3740],
optimal training designs for MIMO OFDM systems are
presented.
In general, irrespective of the various improvement that
have been brought upon, the use of the pilotassisted
channel estimation technique by different research inves-
tigations, the fact that the technique brings about wastage
in the scarce communication bandwidth still remains a
major setback in its deployment. Another drawback of
the pilot scheme is that they make channel estimates to
depend on the pilot symbols alone, and the interpolation
techniques that is applied to estimate for data points, as
expected, can never be hundred percent perfect; hence,
there would be unresolved error introduced into the
estimation process.
3.2 Blind and Semiblind Channel Estimation
Techniques
Consequent upon the wastage of bandwidth that is
peculiar to the usage of pilotassisted channel estima-
tion techniques presented in the previous section, blind
287
 Oyerinde OO and Mneney SH: Review of Channel Estimation for Wireless Communication Systems
channel estimation techniques have been investigated. In
the blind channel estimation techniques, the use of pilot
(training) symbols that consume valuable channel capac-
ity is avoided, but instead the channel is estimated by
employing inherent information in the received signals
as well as the transmitted signals structural properties.
In contrast, the semiblind channel estimation techniques
employ the combination of the trainingbased estimation
and blind channel estimation methods. In this technique,
information about the known training symbols as well
as inherent information in the unknown received sig-
nals is used for channel estimation purpose. Existing
blind channel estimation techniques can be classified
as statistical and deterministic. In the class of statistical
method, the cyclic statistic properties of the received
signals are explored in estimating the channel, whereas in
the deterministic approach the statistic properties of the
received signals are not used, instead both the received
signals and the channel coefficients are considered to be
deterministic quantities[41].
In various works published in[4247], the higherorder
statistics of the received signals are exploited for channel
estimation. Despite the robustness of the idea presented
in the cited references, in some cases, a large number of
data samples are required which results in high com-
plexity in the computation process. These problems are
reduced by exploring secondorder cyclic statistics of
the oversampled channel output in[4851]. Algorithms
using secondorder statistics for blind channel estima-
tion are compared based on the Asymptotic Normal-
ized Mean Square Error (ANMSE) of channel estimates
in[52], while in[53] hidden Markov model is applied
to the issue of blind channel estimation. In[54], a priori
knowledge of the transmitted data is utilized for blind
channel estimation in a fixed wireless sparse multipath
channel scenario; and frequencydomain blind channel
estimation method is proposed in[55]. The problem of
blindly estimating the FIR of SISO channel is considered
in[56], by employing second order statistics of trans-
formed data in the channel estimation process. Identifi-
able conditions for channel estimation are derived in
the paper. It is however noted in the paper that some
channels are not identifiable. Examples of deterministic
channel estimation in single antenna communication
systems can be found in[5759].
Examples of statistical blind channel estimation methods
for single antenna OFDM systems include those using
correlation techniques[60] and cumulant fitting meth-
ods[61,62]. Redundancy introduced by OFDM cyclic
prefix is employed in[6366] to develop different blind
channel estimation methods, while different subspace
blind channel estimation approaches are published
in[6772]. In[73], finite alphabet approach is employed to
implement blind channel estimation for OFDM system,
288
whereas the authors in [74] investigate blind channel
estimation for IEEE 802.11a based on both finite alpha-
bet approach and clustering of subcarriers. In [7577],
iterative Bayesian method that swings between chan-
nel estimation and symbol detection (and decoding)
is proposed for coded OFDM (COFDM) systems, and
deterministic blind channel estimation approach based
on MLprinciple is applied to OFDM systems in [78],
while in[79] the basic MLmethod of[78] is modified for
phase shift keying signals of OFDM systems.
Blind channel estimation in MIMOOFDM systems is
considered in[80], where periodic precoding is applied at
the inputs and the channel estimation is carried out based
on cyclic correlation of the systems output. Subspace
approach is utilized in[81] for blind channel estimation
for MIMOOFDM systems. A blind source separation
techniques using second order statistic is employed for
extracting the inputs in the blind channel estimation
algorithm presented in[82], while a symbolrate blind
estimation method that relies on second order statistics
is proposed in[83,84]. Higher order statisticbased blind
channel estimation methods for MIMO systems are pre-
sented in[8590]. Adeterministic blind symbol estima-
tion technique is developed in[91] for single input mul-
tiple output systems by exploiting a special data structure
of the oversampled channel output. Subspacebased
channel estimation approaches are presented in[92],
using the projection approximation subspace tracking
combined with deflation (PASTd), and in[93] with short
averaging periods, exploiting the frequency correlation
among adjacent OFDM subcarriers.
Comparing between deterministic and statistical blind
channel estimation methods, the deterministic method
converges much faster than statistical one. However, the
computation complexity of the deterministic method is
very high and even becomes higher as the constellation
order of the modulator employed at the transmitter
increases[80]. Statistical approaches too also suffer from
finite data effect when dealing with an extremely short
sample sequence[91].
Because the blind techniques require no training symbols
for the channel estimation, the techniques are attractive
in that they utilize bandwidth efficiently. However, in
general, blind channel estimation techniques suffer from
others deficiencies. One of these is their requirement of a
long data record which result in slow convergence rate
of the methods, and they also tend to become heavier
from a computational complexity point of view [37].
Furthermore, the techniques, especially the deterministic
and the second order statistic approaches, do leave inde-
terminacy in the channel. Besides, the methods are very
sensitive to channel order overestimation. Lastly, the
blind channel estimation methods do require the c hannel
IETE TECHNICAL REVIEW | Vol 29 | ISSUE 4 | JUL-AUG 2012
 Oyerinde OO and Mneney SH: Review of Channel Estimation for Wireless Communication Systems
to be timeinvariant; consequently, the techniques are
always limited to slowly timevarying channels and
cannot be applied to a fast timevarying channel which
is peculiar to mobile wireless communications systems.
In the class of semiblind channel, estimation techniques
belong the algorithms in[9496], where superimposed
periodic pilot sequences are used to estimate channel
coefficients based on the first or second order statistics of
the channel. In[97] a semiblind estimation framework is
analyzed in which the standard leastsquares estimator,
based on a known pilot sequence, is enhanced by using
the statistical structure of the observation. Algorithms
for semiblind channel estimation for parallel data and
training signal case are developed in[98]; however in[99],
the identifiability conditions for blind and semiblind FIR
multichannel estimation in terms of channel characteris-
tics, length of received data, and excitation modes of input
symbol, with number of known symbols for semiblind
estimation, are investigated. Semiblind channel estima-
tion for block precoded spacetime OFDM transmis-
sions is presented in[100]. In the case of MIMO system,
semiblind channel estimation is considered for MIMO
channel in[101], while an approach that can learn channel
coefficient when a small amount of training data are avail-
able is proposed in[102] for frequency selective MIMO
systems. An orthogonal pilotbased maximumlikelihood
(OPML) semiblind estimation scheme is proposed
in[103105]. In this approach, the channel matrix is fac-
tored into the product of a whitening matrix and a unitary
rotation matrix, the whitening matrix is estimated from
the data using a blind algorithm, while the unitary rota-
tion matrix is estimated exclusively from the training data
using the OPLM algorithm. In[106], comparative study
of trainingbased and semiblind MIMO flatfading chan-
nel estimation schemes, when the transmitter employs
maximum ratio transmission, is carried out.
3.3 Decisiondirected Channel Estimation
Techniques
In the DDCE techniques, both the pilot symbols as well
as the remodulated detected message symbols are
employed for channel estimation[6]. By this process,
the DDCE schemes provide a more reliable channel
estimate than its pilotassisted channel estimation coun-
terpart. The reason for this is because in the absence of
transmission errors, DDCE scheme could be viewed as a
pilotassisted channel estimation scheme that is employ-
ing approximately hundred percent pilot information
symbols in comparison with the purely pilotassisted
scheme with sparse available pilot symbols for the same
channel estimation. By using these techniques, the num-
ber of pilot symbols being used for channel estimation
could be drastically reduced. The mode of operation of
the DDCE techniques is that the initial a posteriori channel
IETE TECHNICAL REVIEW | Vol 29 | ISSUE 4 | JUL-AUG 2012
transfer function (CTF obtained based on the available
present received and detected symbols) associated with
the current detected symbol is estimated on the basis
of the pilot symbols and the remodulated message
symbols. This a posteriori CTF is then employed as an
a priori channel estimate during the demodulation of
the next symbols received in the next time slot. In these
techniques, very few pilot symbols are required for the
purpose of initializing the estimation process.
In[107], van de Beek etal. employ both training symbols
and quantized decision variable in the decisiondirected
channel estimators (Minimum Mean Square Error and
Least Square channel estimators) proposed for OFDM
systems. In their methods, a priori knowledge of noise
variance and channel covariance is assumed, the assump-
tion that does not hold in real world scenarios. Edfords
etal. in[108,109] propose a lowrank approximation to
the frequencydomain linear MMSEE making use of
singular value decomposition method. The major prob-
lem with the approach is that it requires knowledge of
the channel frequency correlation, which might not be
available, and the operating SNR. In[3], a 2DMMSE
estimator is proposed for OFDM system which makes
full use of the timeand frequencydomain correlations
of the frequency response of timevarying dispersing
fading channel, and also capitalizes on the availability
of an infinite number of previous initial a posteriori chan-
nel estimates associated with past OFDM symbols. This
assumption of utilizing an infinite number of initial a pos-
teriori channel estimates associated with the past OFDM
symbols is quite unrealistic. In[110], the idea in[3,107]
is extended to the case of clustered OFDM system where
new transforms, that are independent of the channel
delay profile, is used for the proposed channel estima-
tor. However, in[111], the performance of an adaptive
OFDM (AOFDM) transceiver that employs DDCE and
modulation mode adaptation is studied.
A DDCE method is proposed in[112] for both OFDM
and MultiCarrier Code Division Multiple Access
(MCCDMA) systems, where a channel characterized
by a SSCIR is assumed. As it is indicated earlier in
section2.4, this assumption is not feasible in realistic
channel conditions. Achievable performance of the
estimation method proposed in[112] in conjunction
with a more realistic nonSSCIR model described in
section2.4 is analyzed in[113]. Recently, a subspace
algorithm namely the deflated version of the PASTd
algorithm of [114], and the adaptive Recursive Least
Square (RLS) predictor of[115], are deployed to imple-
ment the DDCE scheme in [116,117] for OFDM sys-
tems in a realistic nonsamplespaced mobile channel
scenario. The major drawback of the proposed scheme
by the authors in[116,117] is associated with the algo-
rithms deployed. In the case of the PAST algorithm, it is
289
 Oyerinde OO and Mneney SH: Review of Channel Estimation for Wireless Communication Systems
ighlighted in[114] that the deflation technique applied
h DDCE designed for OFDM systems that support multiple
on PAST algorithm to arrive at PASTd version causes a
stronger loss of orthonormality between eigenvectors
of the transformation matrix utilized in the algorithm.
Therefore, if there are some postprocessing methods
that use the signal subspace estimate, from which an
orthonormal basis of the signal subspace is required,
in order to extract the desired signal information, the
transformation matrix has to be reorthonormalized.
This of course will result in increase of computational
complexity. Another shortcoming mentioned in [114]
is the fact that PASTd algorithm exhibits an increase
in computational complexity if the number of OFDM
subcarriers, K , is much greater than the number of the
nonSampleSpaced (nonSS) channel paths M (i.e.,if
K ? M ). Although the RLS converge faster than its
Normalized Least Mean Square (NLMS) counterpart,
it is emphasized in [115] that the coefficient update
complexity is more costly for RLSbased predictor when
compared with that of NLMS predictor. This obviously
will limit the deployment of RLSbased predictor in a
real time implementation. Consequent upon these two
drawbacks, DDCE methods employing Fast Data Pro-
jection Methodbased CIR estimator and Variable Step
Size (VSS) NLMSbased CIR predictor are presented
in[118120].
In[121], a decisiondirected channel parameter estimation
and optimum training sequences for OFDM with multiple
transmit antennas is proposed. The method involves
the inversion of a large matrix in order to decouple the
interantenna interference. Asimplified channel estima-
tor is then presented in[122] based on optimum training
sequences for OFDM systems with multiple transmit
antenna, in order to reduce the complexity involved in
the approach of[121]. However, it is noted in[122] that
the substitution made to reduce the computational com-
plexity of the simplified channel estimator proposed may
cause some performance degradation. The techniques
in[121,122] is extended to MIMOOFDM systems in[123]
where the estimated channel delay profile of the various
independent channels are exploited for channel param-
eter estimation. Other contribution to the DDCE scheme
for MIMO systems includes the presentation in[124]
where the application of the RLS algorithm for adaptation
of the CIRrelated tap predictors coefficient in the context
of parallel interference cancellation (PIC)assisted DDCE
designed for OFDM systems employing multiple transmit
antennas is studied. Asubspacebased DDCE employ-
ing a modified Low Rank Adaptive Filter (LORAF) 1
algorithm in[125] is proposed for MIMOOFDM system
in[126]. Unfortunately, it is observed from the simula-
tion results presented in[126] that the performance of
the proposed subspacebased channel estimator is worse
at low SNR, which is explained as due to the subspace
tracking error caused by strong noise. The PICassisted
290
users and employ multiple transmit antennas at base
station (BS) is investigated in[127]. In[128], the DDCE
proposed for single antennabased OFDM systems
in[113] is extended to MIMOOFDM systems with the
modification made to the CTF estimator module of the
scheme. The CTF estimator module of the DDCE scheme
is made up of the complex RLS algorithm that exploits
the probabilityrelated soft information available at the
output of the MIMOOFDM systems detector rather than
the decisionbased estimates of the transmitted symbols
employed in[113] which are prone to decision error and
might cause error propagation which will eventually
result in substantial performance degradation in the case
of MIMOOFDM systems.
In the iterative version of DDCE schemes, the chan-
nel estimator employs the increasingly refined soft
or hard symbol information computed by either the
detector/equalizer or the decoder and fed back to the
estimator in order to improve the quality of the chan-
nel estimates as the number of iteration increases. In
the process, the detector/equalizer or the decoder also
benefits from the improved channel estimates and then
outputs better soft or hard symbol information which in
turn is fed back into the channel estimator. Hence, the
detector/equalizer or the decoder operates in an iterative
mode with the channel estimator. If hard symbol infor-
mation is employed, the channel estimator makes use of
the hard decision output of either the detector/equalizer
or the decoder. Such channel estimation schemes are then
referred to as hard iterative channel estimation. On the other
hand, if the soft symbol information is utilized, the chan-
nel estimator will use the loglikelihood ratios (LLR) on
the coded bits calculated by either the detector/equalizer
or the decoder for channel estimation. Similarly, such
schemes are referred to as soft iterative channel estimation.
The iterative method based on expectationmaximization
(EM) algorithm is presented in[129] for joint channel
parameter estimation and symbol detection. With EM
algorithm, the quality of the channel estimate is not guar-
anteed throughout the iteration process. Hard decision
from decoder is used to refine the channel estimate in the
iterative method presented in[130] for COFDM systems,
while in[131] iterative channel estimation method is
presented, where soft and hard decision feedback from
equalizer are used separately to improve the channel
estimate. It is however verified in[132] that soft decision
feedback performs about 0.15dB better than hard deci-
sion feedback, for both channel sounding and least square
estimation. The soft statistics in the form of a posteriori
probability (APP) are exploited in[133] to estimate and
track the random fluctuations occasioned by time division
multiple accessbased mobile radio links that is impaired
by timevarying frequencyselective multipath channel.
IETE TECHNICAL REVIEW | Vol 29 | ISSUE 4 | JUL-AUG 2012
 Oyerinde OO and Mneney SH: Review of Channel Estimation for Wireless Communication Systems
Arecursive version of EM algorithm employed in[129] is
applied to channel estimator proposed in[134]. The per-
formance of a coherent COFDM system in the presence of
a timevarying frequencyselective fading channel using a
predictorbased channel estimator is investigated in[135].
The channel estimation method presented is based on a
decisiondirected adaptive technique that uses decisions
at the output of either the detector or the decoder. Iterative
estimation and decoding of turbo codes over fading chan-
nels employing both hard and soft feedback from turbo
decoder is presented in[136,137]. It is further confirmed
from the simulation results presented in[136,137] that
channel estimate based on soft decision feedback outper-
forms its counterpart based on hard decision feedback by
about 0.5dB. Awireless communication systems receiver
based on joint iterative channel and data estimation,
exploiting both the power of pilotsymbolassisted modu-
lation and turbo coding for fading channels, is proposed
in[138]. However, in[139], the iterative channel similar
to the one considered in[131] is proposed for fastfading
GSM (Global System for Mobile) channel with feedback
from decoder rather than from the equalizer. However,
as expected, the performance in this case is better than
when the feedback is obtained from the equalizer. The
reason for this is due to the fact that the feedback from
the decoder has been further refined after leaving the
equalizer stage, and it is lower in error in comparison
with the feedback from the equalizer as a result of the
decoding process. Areceiver that performs joint channel
estimation and turbo decoding, where the two processes
benefit from each other, is presented in[140]. Iterative
channel reestimation methods based on EM algorithm,
and bootstrap techniques are proposed in[141] in order to
enhance the performance of the classical pseudoinverse
channel estimation method. Iterative soft serial interfer-
ence cancellation algorithm for joint data detection and
channel parameter estimation based on softin softout
single user decoders and soft interference cancellation
is presented in[132], while joint channel estimation and
decoding approach is presented in[142]. Anew way of
initial estimation of amplitudes of fading channels with
delayed turbo decoding initialization is proposed in the
iterative channel estimation technique presented in[143],
while iterative channel estimation is invoked in[144] to
design a trellisbased turbo equalizer. In the iterative
scheme proposed in[145], channel estimation, signal
detection, decoding, and retransmission are achieved in a
disjoint iterative mode. In the papers, hard decision rather
than soft decision is fed back from decoder to the estima-
tor. Two different iterative channel estimators for mobile
OFDM systems, the first one based on iterative filtering
and decoding while the second one using an APP, are
investigated in[146]. The two estimators are said to per-
form equally at low to moderate Doppler frequency shifts;
however, the second estimator outperformed the first one
for a channel with very large Doppler frequency shifts.
IETE TECHNICAL REVIEW | Vol 29 | ISSUE 4 | JUL-AUG 2012
An EM suboptimal twostep iterative channel estimation
and decoding algorithm using some approximations is
proposed in [147], whereas in [148] the application of
the iterative channel estimation and coherent detection
is proposed for implementation of the Direct Sequence
Ultra Wideband (DS UWB) technology. Iterative channel
estimation technique proposed in [137] is extended to
the case of frequency selective fading channels in[149].
Four different algorithmbased iterative channel estima-
tors, the least mean square (LMS), RLS, the modified
RLS, and the Kalmanbased algorithms, are compared
in[150,151]. In these papers, both hard and soft decision
feedback from decoder are considered. The results from
the papers further confirmed that the estimation with
soft decision generally performs better than the one with
hard decision feedback. The authors observed that though
LMS shows slow convergence during the initial training
sequence, it however performs well in the remainder
of the frame. Besides, while using soft feedback from
decoder, LMS performs only slightly worse than modi-
fied RLS and much better than ordinary RLS using soft
or hard decisions. In addition, the authors in the papers
concluded that by using soft feedback for iterative estima-
tion, the LMSbased estimator is always close to the best
performing estimator among those employed. Hence,
since the LMS algorithm is the simplest algorithm, it is
suggested by the authors that LMS with soft feedback
should be used for iterative channel estimation.
Despite the fast convergence of the RLS algorithm,
according to the authors in[150,151], its deployment in
the realtime implementation is to be avoided because
of its costly computational complexity. Because of
the limitation of the RLS algorithms and the perfor-
mance exhibited by the LMS algorithm as confirmed
in[150,151], channel estimation based on an improved
version of LMS, tagged VSSNLMSbased iterative chan-
nel estimator that takes care of the slow convergence of
the LMS algorithm and brings about improvement on
its performance is presented in[152].
An iterative channel estimation technique that exploits
coding gain to achieve channel estimate for mobile fourth
generation coherent OFDM systems is proposed in[153].
In[154], soft input weighted RLS error estimator and soft
input Kalman channel estimator (obtained by restructur-
ing the channel estimation problem of one of the Kalman
state estimation, revealing the soft information from the
decoding process, into the statistical description of the
channel) are proposed. Nondata ML channel estimation
is improved in[155] by using convolutional encoder at
the transmitter and a softinput softoutput decoder that
works iteratively with channel estimator at the receiver.
Local linear and parabolic Bsplines are applied in[156]
for iterative channel estimation over fast flat fading
291
 Oyerinde OO and Mneney SH: Review of Channel Estimation for Wireless Communication Systems
channels, while in[157] a method to measure the chan-
nel statistics and operating SNR from the received signal
is proposed for iterative detection in OFDM systems.
Pilotsymbolaided iterative channel estimation method
for COFDMbased systems is considered in [158] by
using the LS technique with DFTbased interpolation
in the frequency domain and linear interpolation in the
time domain. Virtual pilots are formed from the APP
provided by the channel decoder. Iterative COFDM
is investigated in[159] where the reliability of the soft
symbols is improved by feeding back a posteriori LLR
values instead of extrinsic LLRvalues to the channel
estimator. In[160], an iterative detector made up of
Turbo decoder and a channel estimator is proposed for
OFDM systems. As usual, the proposed modules operate
in an iterative mode during which they exchange soft
information with one another. In[161], a channel estima-
tion method for OFDM systems in fast fading channel
scenario is proposed, while a sliding window approach
is used to compensate the intercarrier interference (ICI)
terms for pilot tones. An adaptive softbased multiple
burst maximumlikelihood (MBML) technique is pre-
sented[162] for channel estimation in a turbo receiver.
In the presented technique, a priori information on the
coded bits available at the iterative receiver is exploited
while employing a subspace tracking approach with
the aim of reducing the computational complexity of
the eigenvalue decomposition as well as improving the
tracking performance in a scenario where the multipath
pattern gradually changes over time. In[163], an iterative
channel estimation, equalization, and decoding scheme
for pilot symbolassisted transmission over a frequency
selective Rayleigh fading channel is proposed. The
scheme employed a channel estimator that is separated
from equalizer softinput softoutput module similar to
the type presented in[150,151]. Significant performance
improvement is observed for the scheme with iteration as
opposed to its noniterative counterpart. Specifically, it is
observed in the paper that there is performance degrada-
tion of about 2.7dB for slower fade rate and 5.7dB for
the faster fade rate compared with the iterative channel
estimator at a BER of 103.
Channel matrix of a MIMO channel is estimated with the
aid of soft decision from a Turbo decoder in the proposed
pilotaided joint channel estimation and data detection
method for MIMO communication systems presented
in [164]. An iterative method for DDCE for OFDM is
presented in[165], where its application to joint chan-
nel estimation and data decoding for space timecoded
system is illustrated. Similarly, in[166], iterative equal-
ization algorithm is proposed for frequency selective
MIMO channels, in which the proposed algorithm works
jointly with the iterative estimator. In[167], joint chan-
nel estimation and data detection is proposed. Ajoint
iterative channel estimation scheme is proposed in[168]
292
for mitigating the effect of multipleaccess interference
and multipath channel distortion on the spacetime mul-
tiuser detector. Adaptive filteringbased iterative channel
estimation techniques using hard decisions are proposed
in[169] where it is concluded that the LMS estimator is
a reasonable choice in terms of computational efficiency,
with a minimum performance loss gain compared
with RLS and the Kalman filter estimators. In[170], an
iterative channel estimation method for the space time
blockcoded (STBC) OFDM system with cyclic prefix
reconstruction is proposed, while in [171] an iterative
joint channel estimation and signal detection approach is
proposed for MIMOOFDM systems. An iterative chan-
nel estimation algorithm based on time domain filter-
ing, and which can iteratively reduce the multi antenna
subchannel interference and the effect of additive white
Gaussian noise (AWGN) is proposed in[172].
In [173], a turbo MIMOOFDM receiver that is made
up of a softfeedback decisiondirected MIMO channel
estimator, a softinputsoftoutput spacetime detec-
tor and a softinputsoftoutput parallelconcatenated
turbo decoder is proposed. These three components of
the receiver iteratively exchange soft bitrelated infor-
mation over a number of iterations. The softfeedback
decisiondirected MIMO channel estimator that is made
up of the same DDCE method is proposed by the authors
in[116,117] except that the CTF estimator is based on
the RLS algorithm used by the authors in [150,156].
As such, the softfeedback decisiondirected MIMO
channel estimator comprises RLSbased CTF estimator,
PASTdbased CIR estimator, and RLSbased CIR pre-
dictor. In [174], comparative results are presented for
softfeedback iterative DDCE scheme using the struc-
tures in [128,173] with Turbo codes and LowDensity
Parity Check codes as the channel errorcorrecting cod-
ing scheme. Nonetheless, based on the drawbacks with
the use of the RLS algorithm and the PASTd subspace
tracking algorithm, as a result of their complexity that
has earlier been mentioned, the proposed softfeedback
decisiondirected MIMO channel estimator will be so
complex that it cannot be practically implemented.
Less complex DDCE and iterative DDCE techniques for
SISOOFDM and MIMOOFDM systems are presented
in[175,176] and[177], respectively. The authors in[173]
with another author also proposed a Generic Algorithm
(GA)assisted iterative joint channel estimation and
multiuser detection approach in [178] for multiuser
MIMO Space Division Multiple AccessOFDM systems
in a bid to resolve the problem associated with the
rankdeficient scenarios (a situation where the number
of users are higher than the number of receive antennas).
Lastly, an iterative receiver for MIMOOFDM systems
with joint ICI cancellation and channel estimation is
presented in [179]. The authors concluded, based on
their simulation results, that for mobile transmission sce-
IETE TECHNICAL REVIEW | Vol 29 | ISSUE 4 | JUL-AUG 2012
 Oyerinde OO and Mneney SH: Review of Channel Estimation for Wireless Communication Systems

&KDQQHOHVWLPDWLRQWHFKQLTXHV are discussed. The paper will be helpful in reaching a

compromised decision regarding channel estimation
techniques to be employed in most of the wireless com-
3LORWDLGHG %OLQGFKDQQHO 'HFLVLRQGLUHFWHGFKDQQHO munication systems.
FKDQQHO HVWLPDWLRQ HVWLPDWLRQ''&(
HVWLPDWLRQ WHFKQLTXHV WHFKQLTXHV To the best of our knowledge, blind channel estimation
WHFKQLTXHV method for OFDMbased cooperative diversity systems
have not been reported in literature. This channel esti-
mation method will need to be considered in this area
of wireless communication systems. Furthermore, joint

'HWHUPLQLVWLF 6WDWLVWLFV +DUG 6RIW
time and frequency synchronization will also need to be
PHWKRGV PHWKRGV LWHUDWLYH LWHUDWLYH investigated together with DDCE and blind channel esti-
''&( ''&( mation methods. There is also a need to be investigated
6HPLEOLQGFKDQQHO PHWKRGV PHWKRGV the real time implementation of the various channel
HVWLPDWLRQWHFKQLTXHV estimation methods reviewed in this paper, as applied
to different wireless communication systems.
6HFRQGRUGHU +LJKHURUGHU
VWDWLVWLFV626 VWDWLVWLFV+26
PHWKRGV PHWKRGV
Figure 2: Channel estimation techniques classification.
narios, the proposed method can effectively compensate
the effect of intercarrier interference.
On a final note, despite the fact that semiblind chan-
nel estimation techniques (that exploit the statistics of
the unknown data, as well as the known pilot signal)
provide better performance than the pilotbased and
blind channel estimation techniques separately[98], the
techniques are outperformed by the DDCE techniques as
well as their iterative versions described in this section.
In the case where the same number of pilot symbols
employed by the semiblind techniques are assigned
to the iterative (decisiondirected) channel estimation
techniques, the iterative (decisiondirected) channel
estimation techniques will exhibit better performance
than the semiblind techniques and far better than the
blind and pilotassisted channel estimation techniques.
Figure2 shows the three main classification of channel
estimation techniques reviewed in this paper, and how
they interlinked with each other.
4. Conclusion and Future Works
In this paper, multipath CIR models for wireless com-
munication systems are presented. The statistics of the
CIR model in terms of the correlation function and PDP
are described and their expressions given. Examples of
different commonly used PDP for COST 207 are also
tabulated. Discrete time channel models include the
SSCIR and the nonSSCIR models. Detail overviews of
the three main types of channel estimation techniques,
namely the pilotaided channel estimation, blind channel
estimation, and DDCE techniques are presented, while
the various shortcomings associated with these methods
IETE TECHNICAL REVIEW | Vol 29 | ISSUE 4 | JUL-AUG 2012
5. Acknowledgment
This work was partially supported by Deutscher Akademischer
Austauschdienst (DAAD) in the form of DAAD postgradu-
ate scholarship, Radio Access and Rural Telecommunication
(RART) Centre of the School of Electrical, Electronic and
Computer Engineering, University of KwaZuluNatal, South
Africa, and the University of KwazuluNatal Postdoctoral
Research Fund.
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AUTHORS
Olutayo. O. Oyerinde received the B.Sc. (Hons.) and
the M.Sc. degrees in electrical and electronic
engineering from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife,
Nigeria, in 2000 and 2004, respectively, and the Ph.D.
degree in electronic engineering from the School of
Engineering, University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN),
Durban, South Africa, in 2010. He is currently a
Postdoctoral Research Fellow with the Electrical, Electronic and Computer
Engineering Discipline, School of Engineering, UKZN, under UKZN
Postdoctoral Research Funding. His research interests are in the area of
wireless communications including multiple antenna systems, orthogonal
frequency division multiplexing system and channels estimation, and signal
processing techniques.
E-mail: taoyrind@yahoo.com
DOI: 10.4103/0256-4602.101308; Paper No. TR 372_11; Copyright 2012 by the IETE
298
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MarchApril2008.
Stanley H. Mneney received the B.Sc. (Hons.) Eng.
degree from the University of Science and Technology,
Kumasi, Ghana, in 1976 and the M.A.Sc. from the
University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, in
1979. In a Nuffic funded project by The Netherlands
government he embarked on a sandwich Ph.D
programme between the Eindhoven University of
Technology, Eindhoven, The Netherlands and the University of Dares Salaam,
Dares Salaam, Tanzania, the latter awarding the degree in 1988. He is at
present a Professor of Telecommunication and Signal Processing and head
of the Radio Access and Rural Telecommunication (RART) Centre in the
Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering Discipline, School of
Engineering, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa. His research
interests include theory and performance of telecommunication systems,
low cost rural telecommunications services and networks, channel modelling
and digital signal processing applications.
E-mail: Mneneys@ukzn.ac.za
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