Time-Frequency Based Channel Estimation for High-Mobility OFDM Systems–Part I: MIMO Case

Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems hold the potential to drastically improve the spectral efficiency and link reliability in future wireless communications systems. A particularly promising candidate for next-generation fixed and mobile wireless systems is the combination of MIMO technology with Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM). OFDM has become the standard method because of its advantages over single carrier modulation schemes on multipath, frequency selective fading channels. Doppler frequency shifts are expected in fast-moving environments, causing the channel to vary in time, that degrades the performance of OFDM systems. In this paper, we present a time-varying channel modeling and estimation method based on the Discrete Evolutionary Transform to obtain a complete characterization of MIMO-OFDM channels. Performance of the proposed method is evaluated and compared on different levels of channel noise and Doppler frequency shifts.