Data Aided Channel Estimation for OFDM Wireless Systems using Reliable Carriers

Channel estimation is an essential and crucial research problem in orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) based wireless communication systems. Several techniques have been applied and investigated for wireless channel estimation but each of them has its own limitations. The major drawback in current channel estimation techniques is that a large pilot overhead is needed to yield a satisfactory performance which reduces the spectral efficiency. To overcome this shortcoming, we suggest a method of data aided channel estimation which minimizes the pilot overhead without compromising the quality of channel estimation in OFDM systems. The proposed technique is based on reliable data carrier's selection algorithm in which reliable data carriers are used as virtual pilots, thus eliminating the need for additional pilots. Simulation results show a significant improvement in terms of mean square error (MSE) and bit error rate (BER) of the proposed algorithm.