Channel estimation technique with assistance of PN-coded training sequences for wireless OFDM communications

In OFDM systems, channel estimation is a crucial consideration for improving system performance. The channel fading effects are eliminated by the equalization of received signal, and the equalizer coefficients are determined according to the results of channel estimation. In this paper, the channel estimation of OFDM systems in time domain for fast fading channel is investigated and developed. The time-domain channel estimation scheme is achieved by inserting pseudo-noise (PN) sequences in the prefix of each OFDM symbol, and therefore the channel impulse response can be estimated. These proposed algorithms include both least-squares and maximum-likelihood estimation techniques. The proposed techniques can perform better than the conventional channel estimation with correlators. Some comparative simulations are given to illustrate the superior performance of the proposed channel estimation techniques.