Space-time channel estimation and performance analysis for wireless MIMO-OFDM systems with spatial correlation

This paper treats channel estimation in multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems with correlation at the receive antenna array. A two-step channel estimation algorithm is proposed. Firstly, the iterative quadrature maximum likelihood based time delay and spatial signature estimation is presented by utilizing special training signals with a cyclic structure. The receive spatial correlation matrix of the vector valued channel impulse response is formulated as a function of the spatial signature, the time delay, and the pulse shaping filter. The joint spatio-temporal (JST) filtering based minimum mean squared error channel estimator is derived by virtue of the spatial correlation. In addition, the effect of channel estimation errors on the bit error probability performance of the space-time block coded OFDM system over correlated MIMO channels is derived. The Cramer-Rao lower bound on the time delay estimate is provided for a benchmark of the performance comparison. The performance of proposed algorithms is illustrated based on analysis and computer simulations. The JST channel estimator achieves significant gains in the mean squared error compared to the temporal filtering. It also enables remarkable savings in the pilot symbol power level.