Channel Tracking and Signal Detection for MC-CDMA in Time-Varying Environment

In this paper, a joint channel estimation and multiuser detection method is presented for uplink MC-CDMA systems in time-varying environment. Unlike the conventional channel tracking schemes which generally need to insert pilot bits in every OFDM symbol, in the proposed approach, only one pilot symbol is required at the beginning of each data frame. Based on the fact that the channel coefficients of two successive symbols are highly correlated, subsequent channel tracking and signal detection are carried out iteratively. A major contribution of the proposed approach is that it enables robust error propagation control, and is capable of detecting and tracking abrupt channel changes effectively. Simulation examples demonstrate the robustness of the proposed algorithms.