Optimisation of a clustering based criterion for blind channel estimation

This paper presents a blind channel estimation algorithm based on the minimization of a new criterion. The algorithm is typically devoted to the case of an OFDMA context with K-ary QAM modulation and a weak number of received symbols, potentially inferior to the constellation size. In the simple 4-QAM case we analytically show that this algorithm is equivalent to the classical Viterbi-Viterbi algorithm. The algorithm proposed in this paper can then be viewed as a generalization of the Viterbi-Viterbi algorithm to all K-ary QAM modulations. Simulation results are presented for the case of 16-QAM and 64-QAM modulations.