TU3A.

A Multistage Channel Estimation and ICI Reduction Method for

OFDM Systems in Doubly Dispersive Channels
Ali Ramadan Ali, Ali Aassie Ali, and Abbas S. Omar
Chair of Microwave and Communication Engineering,
University of Magdeburg, P.O. BOX 4120, Magdeburg D-39106, Germany
{ramadan|ali}@iesk.et.uni-magdeburg.de, a.omar@ieee.org

Abstract — Rapidly time-varying channels degrade the
performance of the orthogonal frequency division
multiplexing OFDM due to loosing the orthogonality
between the sub-carriers resulting in Inter-Carrier-
Interference ICI and necessitate estimating the complete
elements of the channel matrix. In this paper a low
complexity multistage pilot-based channel estimator is
introduced, in which, the time delays and number of paths
are first estimated using a super resolution technique. The
main diagonal of the channel matrix is estimated via
Wiener filtering. The whole channel matrix which is used
for ICI cancellation is built by applying a linear
interpolation to approximate the channel time variation
between three successive symbols.
Moreover, in [2], the knowledge of the channel
parameters e.g. (number of paths, and time delays) had
been assumed in order to optimize the Wiener filter.
Such parameters will be estimated in this contribution
using a super resolution technique.
II. SYSTEM MODEL
In an OFDM system, the input bit stream is first
modulated using a common modulation scheme like
QAM or PSK before applying the IFFT operation as
shown in Fig. 1.

QAM Map.&
Bit stream
I. INTRODUCTION RF front

IFFT
S/P
Coding +GI D/A

P/S
& Interleaving end

The entire channel of OFDM system is divided into

Channel
many mathematically orthogonal sub-carriers which are
transmitted simultaneously using the inverse fast Pilots

Fourier transform (IFFT). Transmitting many sub- AWGN

carriers simultaneously increases the symbol duration

and makes OFDM being the most practical technique
Equalization
estimation&
P/S &QAM

Channel

Bit stream
Demap.

RF front
FFT

Decoding & -GI A/D

S/P

for combating inter-symbol-interference (ISI) caused by Deinterleaving end

fading channels. ISI can be completely eliminated by

adding a guard interval between symbols longer than
the channel impulse response. The guard interval can be
performed by extracting a portion of an OFDM symbol
at the end and append it to the beginning, this keeps the
orthogonality and enables circular convolution with the
channel. This robustness against frequency fading could
not be found in case of time-variation environment, so
that OFDM is often considered sensitive to frequency
offset and phase noise and may experiences significant
inter-carrier-interference (ICI) because of loosing the
orthogonality between the sub-carriers caused by
Doppler effect. The performance degradation due to ICI
becomes significant as the number of carriers, carrier
frequency, and vehicle velocity increase [1]. One way
of canceling ICI is based on estimating the whole
channel matrix using Wiener filtering [2]. Such an
estimator requires a Wiener filter and a multiplication
operation for each element of the channel matrix and
also matrix inversion, which increases the complexity
of the receiver for large number of sub-carriers. To
reduce the complexity, only the main diagonal of the
channel matrix is first estimated using Wiener filtering.
In order to cancel the effect of ICI, a linear
approximation approach is applied as described in [3-5].
Fig. 1. Baseband block diagram for an OFDM system
The transmitted OFDM symbol can be written as
N −1 2πnm
j
xn = ∑ S m e N
0 ≤ n ≤ N − 1, (1)
m =0
where S m is the QAM word at the m th sub-carrier
and N is the number of sub-carriers. If we assume the
guard interval to be longer than the channel impulse
response, the transmitted symbols will convolve
circularly with the channel impulse response [3]. The
received symbol can be expressed as
L
y n = ∑ hn(l ) x n −τ l + θ n ,
(2)
l =1
where hn and τ l are the complex random variable
(l )
and the corresponding tap delay, respectively that
characterize the l th path of the multipath channel , and
θ n describes the additive white Gaussian noise at
sample n . The frequency domain signal at the receiver
becomes then
 N −1 L 2πnk 3 shows the estimated impulse response of a 4-path
1 −j
Yk =
N
∑ (∑ h x n−τ l + θ n )e
n= 0 l =1
(l )
n
N
. (3) channel. The third and fourth paths are overlapped in
case of using the conventional FFT method. With the
same bandwidth, they are clearly separated using the
Equation (3) can be simplified [1] to Root-MUSIC method.
N −1
Yk = S k H k , k + ∑ S m H m , k + Θ k . (4) 0.7
FFT method

m=0 0.6
Root-MUSIC

k≠m
 
0.5
ICI

Equation (4) in matrix form can be written as:

0.4

Amplitude
0.3
y = Hs + θ , (5)
0.2

where H is the channel matrix and θ is the frequency 0.1

domain noise vector. In equation (4), the main diagonal
of H represents the average of the time varying channel 0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4
Delay (sec)
weights for each sub-carrier, which will be estimated
-3
x 10

using Wiener filtering, while other elements represent

the ICI effect, which will be estimated using a linear Fig. 3. Estimated channel impulse response
approximation method. Fig. 2 shows the proposed
estimation and equalization stages that will be discussed
in the subsequent sections. IV. CHANNEL TRACKING
We will model the channel using a wide-sense
y ŝ stationary uncorrelated scattering WSSUS model [7],
ˆ -1 y
H
Super
Wiener Save 3 symbols Equalization
and the path gains that need to be tracked will be
resolution
Estimating the paths
Filtering
Estimating chanel matrix assumed WSS stochastic process. The pilots are
distributed among the transmitted data in order to track
Channel tracking
the random amplitude of the channel gains. Wiener
filter can be designed according to linear minimum
squared error (MMSE) criteria [2]. The main diagonal
Fig. 2. Estimation and equalization stages
of the channel matrix H is estimated by filtering the
received symbols.
III. TIME DELAY ESTIMATION Hˆ k , k = w Hk ,k y , (7)
In order to properly estimate the time delays and the
where w k , k is the Wiener filter vector corresponding
number of paths, pure training symbols (pilots) s p are
to the element ( k, k ) of the channel matrix. Wiener filter
first transmitted as a starting phase. The channel is optimized using MMSE criterion

{ }
frequency response on pilots can be calculated as
2
follows MSE = E H − w H y = min . (8) k ,k k ,k N
w k ,k
ˆ = diag (s ) −1 y ,
H (6)
p p p
The solution of (8) gives
where diag s p ( ) is a diagonal matrix whose diagonal w Opt −1
k ,k = R v k ,k , (9)
elements are that of a vector s p . From the calculated
where R is the autocorrelation matrix of the
channel frequency response and using the root-multiple observation vector y and v
k , k is the cross-correlation
signal classification (Root-MUSIC) method [6], which vector between y and the desired filter response H
k ,k .
is one of the super resolution techniques, the time
delays can be estimated efficiently using the available
limited bandwidth. The conventional FFT method on
R = E yy H , v k ,k = E yH k*, k . { } { }
the other hand requires a much wider bandwidth, as to H in the previous formulas is the conjugate transpose
distinguish between two time delays τ 1 and τ 2 , a operator. Utilizing the distributed pilots that are known
for the transmitter and the receiver, R and v k , k can be
1
bandwidth of is required. As an example Fig. determined as described in [2].
τ 2 −τ1
 V. ICI REDUCTION ˆ H (H
sˆ = H(14)ˆHˆ H + σ 2 I ) −1 y ,
θ
In
order to cancel the effect of ICI, all
N × N elements of the channel matrix have to be where σ θ is the noise variance and I is the identity
2

estimated. Here, a linear approximation method which matrix.

makes use of the adjacent symbols of the symbol of
interest and utilizes a Taylor expansion is introduced. VI. SIMULATION RESULTS
The channel matrix can be written as
To test the effect of the multipath channel, a two-path
2π
1 N −1 −j n(k −m) fading channel with different Doppler spreads is
H k ,m =
N n =0
U m (n)e N ,∑(10) considered in this simulation. The ISI is assumed to be
completely removed by choosing the guard interval
longer than the channel impulse response. Perfect
where U m (n) are the time varying channel weights for
synchronization between the transmitter and the
each sub-carrier m and time sample n . We assume receiver is assumed. The considered OFDM system has
that, the channel impulse response varies in linear parameters summarized in Table I. In this simulation
fashion during one OFDM symbol. Let U k represent Uncoded symbols are considered. The Doppler power
spectrum model is assumed to have a Gaussian shape
the U k (n) at the middle of the symbol as having been according to the digital radio mondiale (DRM) channel
estimated early using Wiener filter [9].
N −1
1
U k = H k ,k =
N
∑U
n =0
k ( n) . (11)
TABLE I
Taking the first two terms of a Taylor series System Parameters
Parameter value
N −1 ′
U k ( n) ≈ U k + U k ( n − ), (12) Input modulation scheme 4-QAM
2 Number of carriers 52
′ Number of pilots 8
where U k is the derivative of U k which can be
calculated using the adjacent symbols as Guard interval length 16 samples (330 µs )
FFT length 64
( next sym.)
′ U − U k( prev. sym.) Bandwidth 4.5 KHz
Uk = k , (13)
2N s
where N s is the symbol duration including the guard In Fig. 5 we plot the normalized MSE between the
interval. Using the approximation in (12) and making actual and the estimated channel for different Doppler
use of (10) and (4), Ĥ can be calculated [3]. Fig. 4. spreads. Fig. 6. Illustrates the system performance
shows the estimated channel matrix . From the figure, (BER) for two different Doppler spreads and compares
one can notice that the sub-carrier of interest is between the case of estimating the main diagonal of the
significantly affected by the adjacent sub-carriers. channel matrix only and the case of compensating the
effect of ICI by estimating the whole matrix.

-1
10
20 18Hz
2 Hz
10
ICI free
0 -2
10
Magnitude

-10

-20

-30 -3
NMSE

10
-40
60
6
40
40 -4
20 10
20

Carrier index 0 0
Carrier index

Fig. 4. The absolute values of the normalized channel matrix -5

coefficients 10
15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
SNR
After estimating the channel matrix, an MMSE
Fig. 5. NMSE vs. SNR for different Doppler spreads
equalization method [8] is applied on the received
symbols to get the transmitted data back, this results in
 -1
10 [8] P. Schniter and S. D' Silva, “Low-Complexity
main diag.4Hz
complete.4Hz
Detection of OFDM in Doubly-Dispersive Channels,”
main diag.18Hz Proc. Asilomar Conf. on Signals, Systems, and
-2
10
complete.18Hz Computers, (Pacific Grove, CA), 2002.
[9] ETSI: “Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM)-System
Specification”, ETSI TS 101 980, V1.1.1, Sep. 2001.
BER

-3
10

-4
10

-5
10
15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
SNR

Fig. 6. BER vs. SNR for different Doppler spreads

VII. CONCLUSION
The conventional one-tap equalizer considers ICI as
another source of noise which degrades the
performance of OFDM systems especially in high
mobility environments. In this paper we outperformed
methods proposed earlier and combined them together
to design a multistage estimator used for combating ICI
with less complexity. The utilized super resolution
technique works well also for very small delays
between the paths and solves the problem of the model
mismatching. The linear approximation method is
applicable when the Doppler spread is less than the
frequency spacing between the sub-carriers which is
usually the case. The system performance has shown
good improvement in the error floor.

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