Performance of SFBC-OFDM system with pilot aided channel estimation

This paper introduces a computationally efficient pilot aided channel estimation method for space-frequency block coding (SFBC) Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) systems under frequency selective channels. The proposed method, simulated under WiMax requirements, is based on the use of eight pilots defined in the standard to estimate the channel parameters at constant interval. The pilots are also coded in the same SFBC format to simplify the estimation computations, but can be modulated by different modulation scheme to reduce the estimation error. The method offers tradeoff between accurate channel estimation and efficient bandwidth usage as more pilots would allow the algorithm to perform a more accurate estimation but at the cost of less transmitted data. Performances are evaluated for high mobility applications and with pilots modulated using different modulation schemes. Simulation results are presented for different number of antenna at the receiver, different values of Doppler shifts and different modulations for pilot and data subcarriers.