Rayleigh time-varying channel complex gains estimation and ICI cancellation in OFDM systems

In this paper, we consider an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) mobile communication system operating in downlink mode in a time-varying multipath Rayleigh channel scenario. We present a mean square error (MSE) theoretical analysis for a multipath channel complex gains estimation algorithm with inter-sub-carrier interference (10) reduction using a comb-type pilot. Assuming the presence of delay-related information, the time average of the multipath complex gains, over the effective duration of each OFDM symbol, are estimated using LS criterion. After that, the time-variation of the multipath complex gains within one OFDM symbol are obtained by interpolating the time-averaged symbol values using low-pass interpolation. Hence, the channel matrix. which contains the channel frequency response and the coefficients of ICI, can be computed and the ICI can be reduced by using Successive interference Suppression (SIS) in data symbol detection. The algorithm's performance is further enhanced by an iterative procedure, performing channel estimation and ICI suppression Lit each iteration. Theoretical analysis and simulation results show a significant performance improvement for high normalised Doppler spread (especially after the first iteration) in comparison to conventional methods. Copyright (C) 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.