A novel channel estimation method: Blending correlation and least-squares based approaches

In this paper we introduce a novel channel estimation method which uses symbol rate sampled signals, based on blending the least squares based channel estimation and the correlation based channel estimation methods. We first overview the shortcomings of the least squares and the correlation based channel estimation algorithm, where a training sequence is utilized in both cases. The performance of the new channel estimation method will be demonstrated, such that the channel estimation will be more robust, and the overall quality of the estimate will be improved by recovering the pulse shape which is naturally embedded in the overall channel impulse response. We will demonstrate how both methods can be combined effectively to minimize the problems associated with the effective channel delay spread being longer than the known training sequence can support.