Fast blind channel estimation for space–time block coded MIMO–OFDM systems

Fast blind subspace channel estimation using circular property of the channel matrix is investigated for space–time block coded (STBC) multiple-input multiple-output orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (MIMO–OFDM) systems in this paper. The noise subspace computed from the correlation matrix of received signals requires a large number of symbols to converge in the subspace channel estimation. Using the circular property of the channel matrix, we propose both the cyclic repetition method (CRM) and the forward–backward method (FBM) to generate N times of equivalent signals for each STBC–OFDM symbol, respectively, where N is the size of FFT operation. With these equivalent symbols, the proposed CRM, FBM and CRM–FBM (CFBM) channel estimations can perform very well within a few OFDM symbols. The CRM, FBM and CFBM schemes are applicable to the CP-OFDM, ZP-OFDM and VC-OFDM systems, respectively. The identifiability of the subspace channel estimation is investigated that the channel matrix is determined up to two ambiguity matrices. Computer simulations demonstrate that the CRM-based, FBM-based and CFBM-based channel estimations have better performances than the conventional ones.