Effect of channel estimation error onto the BER performance of PSAM-OFDM in Rayleigh fading

In this paper, the current analysis focuses on the influence of BER performance in Rayleigh fading propagation environments, which results from the channel estimation error of pilot symbol assisted modulation (PSAM) in orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems. This paper first characterizes the distribution of the amplitude and phase estimates using PSAM, and the formula for BER as a function of channel correlation and interpolation filter in time and frequency is given. Also interchannel interference due to Doppler effects is taken into account. Theoretical and simulation results show that channel estimation error leads to a 1-dB degradation in average signal-to-noise ratio for the parameters considered.