Subspace-based blind and semi-blind channel estimation for OFDM systems

This paper proposes a new blind channel estimation method for orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems. The algorithm makes use of the redundancy introduced by the cyclic prefix to identify the channel based on a subspace approach. Thus, the proposed method does not require any modification of the transmitter and applies to most existing OFDM systems. Semi-blind procedures taking advantage of training data are also proposed. These can be training symbols or pilot tones, the latter being used for solving the intrinsic indetermination of blind channel estimation. Identifiability results are provided, showing that in the (theoretical) situation where channel zeros are located on subcarriers, the algorithm does not ensure uniqueness of the channel estimation, unless the full noise subspace is considered. Simulations comparing the proposed method with a decision-directed channel estimator finally illustrates the performance of the proposed algorithm.