Blind channel estimation for MIMO-OFDM systems

By combining multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) communication with the orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) modulation scheme, MIMO-OFDM systems can achieve high data rates over broadband wireless channels. In this paper, to provide a bandwidth-efficient solution for MIMO-OFDM channel estimation, we establish conditions for channel identifiability and present a blind channel estimation technique based on a subspace approach. The proposed method unifies and generalizes the existing subspace-based methods for blind channel estimation in single-input single-output OFDM systems to blind channel estimation for two different MIMO-OFDM systems distinguished according to the number of transmit and receive antennas. In particular, the proposed method obtains accurate channel estimation and fast convergence with insensitivity to overestimates of the true channel order. If virtual carriers (VCs) are available, the proposed method can work with no or insufficient cyclic prefix (CP), thereby potentially increasing channel utilization. Furthermore, it is shown under specific system conditions that the proposed method can be applied to MIMO-OFDM systems without CPs, regardless of the presence of VCs, and obtains an accurate channel estimate with a small number of OFDM symbols. Thus, this method improves the transmission bandwidth efficiency. Simulation results illustrate the mean-square error performance of the proposed method via numerical experiments. Index Terms--Blind channel estimation, cyclic prefix, multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system, orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM), subspace method, virtual carrier.