Frequency-Domain Turbo Equalization with Iterative Channel Estimation for MIMO Underwater Acoustic Communications

This paper proposes a new iterative receiver for single-carrier multiple-input-multiple-output (SC-MIMO) underwater acoustic (UWA) communications, which utilizes frequency-domain turbo equalization (FDTE) and iterative channel estimation. Soft-decision symbols are not only fed back to the equalizer to cancel the intersymbol interference (ISI) and cochannel interference (CCI), but also used as training signals in the channel estimator to update the estimated channel state information (CSI) after each turbo iteration. This iterative channel estimation scheme helps to combat the problem commonly suffered by block-processing receivers in fast time-varying channels. Compared with time-domain turbo equalization, FDTE achieves comparable performance with significantly reduced computational complexity. Using soft-decision symbols to reestimate the time-varying channels, iterative channel estimation further improves the accuracy of the estimated CSI. The proposed iterative receiver has been verified through undersea experimental data collected in the Surface Processes and Acoustic Communications Experiment 2008 (SPACE08)