A robust detector for time-varying, frequency-flat, Rayleigh fading channels

A receiver structure for unknown time-varying, frequency-flat, Rayleigh fading channels is proposed. Unlike the maximum likelihood receiver structure, this receiver structure does not need any knowledge of the channel autocovariance or the received signal-to-noise ratio, and yet it achieves performance close to the optimal structure. The multiplicative fading process is decoupled from the received signal, and it is modelled as a polynomial in time. Accordingly, good robust predictor tap weights are derived for predicting the fading process, and these taps are used in computing the branch metric of the detector. The receiver's performance is studied via analysis and simulation.