Comparative Analysis of Channel Estimation Techniques in Vehicular Communication

In the past few years, vehicular communication has gained a considerable interest in safety as well as the comfort of the users. IEEE 802.11p is been developed explicitly for providing a platform for the communication within the vehicles and between vehicle and surroundings. It utilizes a renowned methodology orthogonal frequency division multiplexing for implementing communication among vehicle and between vehicles to surrounding. In VANET scenario, an efficient channel estimation technique is crucial for the accuracy of the system due to time-variant channel characteristics. This paper presents an overview and comparative analysis of least square and minimum mean square error channel estimation techniques for vehicular communication. The two techniques are compared for several realistic channels in respect of bit error rate over varying signal-to-noise ratio. The estimation algorithm is substructured on the pilot-aided arrangement. The result indicates that the minimum mean square error achieves better performance with a higher complexity as compared to the least square due to reduced mean square error. Minimum mean square error shows an approximate gain of 15 dB signal-to-noise ratio relative to least square method. This work serves as a base for more advanced channel estimation schemes. Finally, this work has been concluded with some future scopes and open issues.