Exploiting error-control coding and cyclic-prefix in channel estimation for coded OFDM systems

OFDM systems typically use coding and interleaving across subchannels to exploit frequency diversity on frequency-selective channels. This letter presents a low-complexity iterative algorithm for blind and semi-blind joint channel estimation and soft decoding in coded OFDM systems. The proposed algorithm takes advantage of the channel finite delay-spread constraint and the extra observation offered by the cyclic-prefix. It converges within a single OFDM symbol and, therefore, has a minimum latency.