Robust MMSE channel estimation in OFDM systems with practical timing synchronization

Robust minimum mean-square error (MMSE) channel estimation for orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) systems with practical timing synchronization is considered. The correlation between the channel coefficients at the different subcarriers depends upon the channel power delay profile (PDP) and the probability density function (pdf) of the timing synchronization offset. Since both of these are not known at design time, there is a need for a robust estimator that results in mean-square error performance independent of the actual channel power delay profile (PDP) and the actual timing synchronization offset pdf. We develop the notion of effective PDP, given by the convolution of the channel PDP and the pdf of the timing synchronization offset. We show that designing with a uniform PDP of the same length as the effective PDP leads to a robust solution. This follows from the robustness of the uniform PDP for MMSK estimation, a known result for which we provide an alternative derivation. We illustrate the performance of the robust estimator using a numerical example.