OFDM channel estimation algorithm and ASIC implementation

Coherent detection of OFDM signals requires channel state information which can be acquired by transmitting known training symbols and by appropriate channel estimation at the receiver. Focusing on robust algorithms suitable for integration in silicon, a novel channel estimation method is proposed. The algorithm is based on a suboptimal modification to the maximum-likelihood estimator and was designed to enable the use of highly optimized constant-coefficient multipliers that require less area on silicon compared to regular multipliers. The mean square error and the complexity of different estimators are analyzed analytically, while an actual ASIC implementation allows to assess the real-world silicon area requirements for our proposed algorithm.