Pilot-symbol-aided channel estimation for OFDM in wireless systems

We investigate pilot-symbol-aided parameter estimation for OFDM systems. We first derive a minimum mean-square error pilot-symbol-aided parameter estimator. Then, we discuss a robust implementation of the pilot-symbol-aided estimator that is insensitive to channel statistics. From the simulation results, the required SNRs for a 10% word error rate (WER) are 6.8 dB and 7.3 dB for the typical urban channels with 40 Hz and 200 Hz Doppler frequencies, respectively, and are 8 dB and 8.3 dB for the hilly-terrain channels with 40 Hz and 200 Hz Doppler frequencies, respectively. Compared with the decision-directed parameter estimator, the pilot-symbol-aided estimator is highly robust to Doppler frequency for dispersive fading channels with noise impairment even though it has some performance degradation for systems with lower Doppler frequencies