Sparse Channel Estimation for OFDM-Based Underwater Acoustic Systems in Rician Fading With a New OMP-MAP Algorithm

Abstract

In this paper, a new channel estimation algorithm is proposed that exploits channel sparsity in the time domain for an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM)-based underwater acoustical (UWA) communications systems in the presence of Rician fading. A path-based channel model is used, in which the channel is described by a limited number of paths, each characterized by a delay, Doppler scale, and attenuation factor. The resulting algorithm initially estimates the overall sparse channel tap delays and Doppler shifts using a compressed sensing approach, in the form of the orthogonal matching pursuit (OMP) algorithm. Then, a computationally efficient and novel channel estimation algorithm is developed by combining the OMP and maximum a posteriori probability (MAP) techniques for estimating the sparse complex channel path gains whose prior densities have complex Gaussian distributions with unknown mean and variance vectors, where a computationally efficient maximum likelihood algorithm is proposed for their estimation. Monte Carlo simulation results show that the mean square error and symbol error rate performances of the OMP–MAP algorithm uniformly outperforms the conventional OMP-based channel estimation algorithm, in case of uncoded OFDM-based UWA communications systems.