Channel estimation for SISO and MIMO OFDM communications systems.

Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2010.Telecommunications in the current information age 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. Consequently, demand for new wireless capacity is growing rapidly at a very alarming rate. In a bid to cope with challenges of increasing demand for higher data rate, better quality of service, and higher network capacity, there is a migration from Single Input Single Output (SISO) antenna technology to a more promising Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) antenna technology. On the other hand, Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) technique has emerged as a very popular multi-carrier modulation technique to combat the problems associated with physical properties of the wireless channels such as multipath fading, dispersion, and interference. The combination of MIMO technology with OFDM techniques, known as MIMO-OFDM Systems, is considered as a promising solution to enhance the data rate of future broadband wireless communication Systems. This thesis addresses a major area of challenge to both SISO-OFDM and MIMO-OFDM Systems; estimation of accurate channel state information (CSI) in order to make possible coherent detection of the transmitted signal at the receiver end of the system. Hence, the first novel contribution of this thesis is the development of a low complexity adaptive algorithm that is robust against both slow and fast fading channel scenarios, in comparison with other algorithms employed in literature, to implement soft iterative channel estimator for turbo equalizer-based receiver for single antenna communication Systems. Subsequently, a Fast Data Projection Method (FDPM) subspace tracking algorithm is adapted to derive Channel Impulse Response Estimator for implementation of Decision Directed Channel Estimation (DDCE) for Single Input Single Output - Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (SISO-OFDM) Systems. This is implemented in the context of a more realistic Fractionally Spaced-Channel Impulse Response (FS-CIR) channel model, as against the channel characterized by a Sample Spaced-Channel Impulse Response (SS)-CIR widely assumed by other authors. In addition, a fast convergence Variable Step Size Normalized Least Mean Square (VSSNLMS)-based predictor, with low computational complexity in comparison with others in literatures, is derived for the implementation of the CIR predictor module of the DDCE scheme. A novel iterative receiver structure for the FDPM-based Decision Directed Channel Estimation scheme is also designed for SISO-OFDM Systems. The iterative idea is based on Turbo iterative principle. It is shown that improvement in the performance can be achieved with the iterative DDCE scheme for OFDM system in comparison with the non iterative scheme. Lastly, an iterative receiver structure for FDPM-based DDCE scheme earlier designed for SISO OFDM is extended to MIMO-OFDM Systems. In addition, Variable Step Size Normalized Least Mean Square (VSSNLMS)-based channel transfer function estimator is derived in the context of MIMO Channel for the implementation of the CTF estimator module of the iterative Decision Directed Channel Estimation scheme for MIMO-OFDM Systems in place of linear minimum mean square error (MMSE) criterion. The VSSNLMS-based channel transfer function estimator is found to show improved MSE performance of about -4 MSE (dB) at SNR of 5dB in comparison with linear MMSE-based channel transfer function estimator