Performance Bounds for MIMO-OFDM Channel Estimation

The performance of a mobile multiple-input multiple-output orthogonal-frequency-division multiplexing (MIMO-OFDM) system depends on the ability of the system to accurately account for the effects of the frequency-selective time-varying channel at every symbol time and at every frequency subcarrier. Typically, pilot symbols are strategically placed at various times over various subcarriers in order to calculate sample channel estimates, and then these estimates are interpolated or extrapolated forward to provide channel estimates where no pilot data was transmitted. Performance is highly dependent on the distribution of the pilots with respect to the coherence time and coherence bandwidth of the channel, and on the chosen channel parameterization. In this paper, a vector formulation of the Cramer-Rao bound (CRB) for biased estimators and for functions of parameters is used to derive a lower bound on the channel estimation and prediction error of such a system. Numerical calculations using the bound demonstrate the benefits of multiple antennas for channel estimation and prediction and illustrate the impact of modeling errors on estimation performance when using channel models based on calibrated arrays.