Study on Channel Estimation in Time-Varing Amplify and Forward Relay Networks

Abstract

In this paper, we study the different channel estimation strategies applied in an AF network, including ordinary channel estimation which estimate the whole source-relay-destination (SRD) channel at the destination, and a new proposed equalized AF (EAF) which make channel estimation separately at relay node and destination node. The EAF carries out the equalization at relay node by the channel estimation, which leads to performance improvement. The analysis of achievable rates is given and the performance benefit of EAF is verified by both numeric and realistic simulation.