Joint channel estimation and equalization for fast time-variant multipath channels

Abstract

The paper presents a method for joint channel and data estimation for transmission over frequency-selective and time-variant channels. Hereby, fast time-variant channels can be tracked, which is important for mobile communications at very high velocities. We approach the problem by estimating the scattering function, which is assumed to be limited in delay and Doppler frequency. At the transmitter, a short training sequence is inserted at the beginning of the data block. This sequence is used for initializing a Kalman filter, which carries out the joint channel and data estimation adaptively. After the training sequence, hypothetical data symbols are considered to extend the persecuted paths in the data tree.