This application claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. §119(a) of a Korean patent application filed in the Korean Intellectual Property Office on Mar. 27, 2007 and assigned Serial No. 2007-29554, the entire disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a broadband wireless communication system. More particularly, the present invention relates to an apparatus and method for estimating a channel in a broadband wireless communication system.
2. Description of the Related Art
In 4th-Generation (4G) communication systems, an emphasis has been placed on providing users with services having a variety of Qualities of Service (QoS) using a transmission speed of about 100 Mbps. In particular, in conventional 4G communication systems, research is being conducted to support high-speed services by ensuring both mobility and QoS to Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) communication systems such as Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) communication systems and Wireless Metropolitan Area Network (WMAN) communication systems.
An exemplary 4G communication system is an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.16 communication system. The IEEE 802.16 communication system applies an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM)/Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) scheme in order to provide a broadband transmission network to a physical channel of the wireless communication system.
The OFDM communication system transmits/receives an OFDM symbol in Time Division Duplex (TDD) scheme. The OFDM symbol is created by mapping a plurality of complex symbols to a frequency axis and performing an Inverse Fast Fourier Transform (IFFT) operation. That is, the OFDM communication system maps a data symbol and a signal for a specific purpose to a physical frequency resource called a subcarrier, for transmission/reception.
Because a broadband wireless communication system has to transmit/receive high-quality data at high speed, the system requires information on a radio channel to efficiently use a limited radio resource. In other words, the system has to select an optimal technique with reference to radio channel state information and interference information in selecting techniques related to signal detection such as a modulation/demodulation and decoding technique, a multi-channel reception technique, etc. That is, system performance is dependent on the accuracy of the radio channel information.
An example of a signal for acquiring the radio channel information is a pilot symbol. In general, the pilot symbol is equally distributed to a frequency domain and a time domain within a subchannel and is positioned between data symbols. That is, a receiving end can obtain radio channel information for detecting data symbols, by estimating a channel using pilot symbols that are received mixed with the data symbols. Because the system performance is dependent on the accuracy of the channel estimation as mentioned above, there is needed an apparatus and method for acquiring a more accurate channel estimation value.
An aspect of the present invention is to address at least the above-mentioned problems and/or disadvantages and to provide at least the advantages described below. Accordingly, an aspect of the present invention is to provide an apparatus and method for improving the accuracy of channel estimation in a broadband wireless communication system.
Another aspect of the present invention is to provide an apparatus and method for estimating a channel using sliding windows in a broadband wireless communication system.
A further aspect of the present invention is to provide an apparatus and method for calculating a weight, for sliding window channel estimation in a broadband wireless communication system.
The above aspects are addressed by providing an apparatus and method for estimating a channel in a broadband wireless communication system.
According to one aspect of the present invention, a receiving end apparatus in a broadband wireless communication system is provided. The apparatus includes an estimator, a first calculator, a second calculator, and a third calculator. The estimator estimates a speed of travel. The first calculator calculates a time correlation value between each pilot symbol included in one or more sliding windows and a pilot symbol of a channel to be estimated, using the estimated speed. The second calculator calculates a weight factor for each of the respective pilot symbols included in the one or more sliding windows using the time correlation value. The third calculator calculates a channel estimation value by multiplying each of the pilot symbols included in the one or more sliding windows by the corresponding weight factor and for equalizing the pilot symbols that have been multiplied together with the weight factors.
According to another aspect of the present invention, a method for channel estimation in a receiving end of a broadband wireless communication system is provided. The method includes estimating a speed of travel, calculating a time correlation value between each pilot symbol included in one or more sliding windows and a pilot symbol of a channel to be estimated using the estimated speed, calculating a weight factor for each of the respective pilot symbols included in the one or more sliding windows using the time correlation value, and calculating a channel estimation value by multiplying each of the pilot symbols included in the one or more sliding windows by the corresponding weight factor and by equalizing the pilot symbols that have been multiplied together with the weight factors.
Other aspects, advantages, and salient features of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description, which, taken in conjunction with the annexed drawings, discloses exemplary embodiments of the invention.
The above and other aspects, features and advantages of certain exemplary embodiments of the present invention will become more apparent from the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:
Throughout the drawings, it should be noted that like reference numbers are used to depict the same or similar elements, features and structures.
The following description with reference to the accompanying drawings is provided to assist in a comprehensive understanding of exemplary embodiments of the invention as defined by the claims and their equivalents. It includes various specific details to assist in that understanding but these are to be regarded as merely exemplary. Accordingly, those of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that various changes and modifications of the embodiments described herein can be made without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention. Also, descriptions of well-known functions and constructions are omitted for clarity and conciseness.
Exemplary embodiments of the present invention provide a sliding window channel estimation technology that applies a weight based on a pilot symbol in a broadband wireless communication system. While an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) wireless communication system is described in the exemplary embodiments of the present invention, the present invention is equally applicable to any wireless communication system using multiple carriers.
A subchannel structure taken into consideration in the exemplary embodiments of the present invention and a channel estimation scheme based on the subchannel structure are described.
As illustrated in
Because the channel estimation value is used for calculating the soft decision value as mentioned above, the accuracy of the channel estimation value has an influence on system reception performance. In the case of the subchannel of
A description of a scheme of estimating a channel using a plurality of adjacent time-axis pilot symbols in the subchannels of the structures of
As shown in
The simplest scheme of channel estimation using sliding windows is to equalize pilot symbols included within windows. That is, in
estimation error.
Here, assuming that the noise (nk) follows Gaussian distribution, the estimation error can be expressed in Equation 2 below:
The sliding window channel estimation using the equalization is suitable in an environment where there is no channel change during a sliding window interval. However, the sliding window channel estimation using the equalization does not provide an optimal channel estimation value because a radio channel varies over time. The following is a scheme of a sliding window channel estimation that minimizes a Mean Square Error (MSE) by taking into consideration the time-varying characteristic of the radio channel.
The following description is based on the assumption that ‘2P+1’ denotes a size of a sliding window, ‘hk’ denotes a channel intended for estimation, and ‘nk’ denotes a pilot symbol being communicated through a channel intended for estimation. A received signal within the sliding window can be expressed in Equation 3 below:
y=Hx+n (3)
Here, an MSE of a channel estimation value is expressed in Equation 4 below:
ε=E[∥wT y−hk∥2] (4)
Here, the weight factor (w) is calculated by a Wiener Solution in Equation 5 below:
w=R
yy
−1
P
yh (5)
Here, the covariance matrix (Ryy) of the received signal and the cross correlation vector (Pyh) between the received signal and the channel factor are defined in Equation 6 below:
Ryy=E[yyH]
P
yh
=E[yh
k* ] (6)
First, a time correlation value has to be calculated in order to calculate the covariance matrix (Ryy) of the received signal and the cross correlation vector (Pyh) between the received signal and the channel factor. The time correlation value is calculated in Equation 7 below:
If the covariance matrix (Ryy) of the received signal is calculated using the time correlation value, it is expressed in Equation 8 below:
Here, the noise variance is obtained from an SNR. That is, the covariance matrix (Ryy) of the received signal is calculated from the SNR and the time correlation value.
If the cross correlation vector (Pyh) between the received signal and the channel factor is calculated using the time correlation value, each element of the cross correlation vector (Pyh) is expressed in Equation 9 below:
P
yh
=[P
k−P,k
. . . P
k,k
. . . P
k+P,k]T
P
m,k=ρ(τm−k)|h|2 (9)
Here, the cross correlation vector (Pyh) between the received signal and the channel factor is calculated from a time correlation value.
In Equations 5 to 9, a receiving end calculates a weight factor (w), multiplies each of the pilot symbols included in sliding windows by the weight factor (w), and calculates a channel estimation value. For example, if a sliding window is positioned as shown in
A construction and operational process of a receiving end for performing sliding window channel estimation using the above schemes are described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.
As shown in
The RF receiver 502 converts an RF signal received through an antenna into a baseband signal. The ADC 504 samples and quantizes an analog signal provided from the RF receiver 502 and converts the analog signal into a digital signal. The OFDM demodulator 506 restores at least one signal of at least one subcarrier from a time-domain OFDM symbol provided from the ADC 504, through a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) operation. The frame buffer 508 stores one or more of the at least one signals of the at least one subcarrier provided from the OFDM demodulator 506, in a frame unit.
The symbol corrector 510 corrects a distortion of a data symbol, which is provided from the frame buffer 508, using a channel estimation value provided from the channel estimator 514. The demodulator and decoder 512 demodulates and decodes a complex symbol provided from the symbol corrector 510 in compliance with a corresponding scheme and converts the complex symbol into an information bit stream. The channel estimator 514 performs channel estimation using sliding windows. In particular, the channel estimator 514 grants a weight to each of the pilot symbols included in the sliding windows and calculates a channel estimation value according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. Construction of the channel estimator 514 is described in detail below with reference to
As shown in
The speed estimator 602 estimates a speed of travel of a receiving end or a transmitting end. If the receiving end is an MS, the speed estimator 602 estimates its own speed using a preamble that is received from a BS. Alternatively, if the receiving end is a BS, the speed estimator 602 estimates a speed of an MS (the transmitting end) using Channel Quality Information (CQI) fed back over a CQI feedback channel.
The time correlation calculator 604 calculates a time correlation value between each of the pilot symbols included in sliding windows and a pilot symbol of a channel intended for estimation. As in Equation 7, the time correlation value is calculated using speed information estimated by the speed estimator 602. There are as many time correlation values calculated as there are pilot symbols included in the sliding windows.
The weight calculator 606 calculates a weight factor to be multiplied together with each of the pilot symbols included in sliding windows. In particular, the weight calculator 606 calculates weight factors, by calculating a covariance matrix of a received signal and a cross correlation vector between the received signal and a channel factor. The calculation is performed by using a time correlation value for each pilot symbol calculated by the time correlation calculator 604. An inverse matrix of the covariance matrix of the received signal is then multiplied together with the cross correlation vector between the received signal and the channel factor. For instance, the weight calculator 606 calculates the covariance matrix of the received signal in Equation 8 and calculates the cross correlation vector between the received signal and the channel factor in Equation 9. Then, the weight calculator 606 calculates the weight factors in Equation 5.
The channel value calculator 608 calculates a channel estimation value using the weight factors calculated by the weight calculator 604. That is, the channel value calculator 608 calculates a channel estimation value by multiplying each of the pilot symbols included in sliding windows by a corresponding weight factor and then equalizing the pilot symbols multiplied together with the weight factors.
Referring to
If the signal is received, the receiving end restores at least one signal of at least one subcarrier in step 703. In other words, the receiving end processes the received signal by FFT operation, thereby restoring at least one signal of at least one subcarrier.
Then, the receiving end positions sliding windows and extracts pilot symbols within the sliding windows in step 705. That is, the receiving end extracts a pilot symbol corresponding to a channel intended for estimation and at least one pilot symbol positioned at the same frequency axis as the pilot symbol.
Next, the receiving end estimates a speed of travel in step 707. If the receiving end is an MS, the receiving end estimates its own speed using a preamble signal received from a BS. Alternatively, if the receiving end is a BS, the receiving end estimates a speed of an MS using CQI information received over a CQI feedback channel.
After the speed is estimated, in step 709, the receiving end calculates a time correlation value of a channel. In Equation 7, the time correlation values are calculated using the speed information. There are as many time correlation values calculated that there are pilot symbols included in the sliding windows.
After the time correlation values are calculated, the receiving end calculates a weight factor to be multiplied together with each of the pilot symbols included in sliding windows in step 711. In particular, the receiving end calculates weight factors by calculating a covariance matrix of a received signal and a cross correlation vector between the received signal and a channel factor using the time correlation value of each pilot symbol. An inverse matrix of the covariance matrix of the received signal is then multiplied together with the cross correlation vector between the received signal and the channel factor. For instance, the receiving end calculates the covariance matrix of the received signal in Equation 8 and calculates the cross correlation vector between the received signal and the channel factor in Equation 9. Then, the receiving end calculates the weight factors in Equation 5.
After the weight factors are calculated, in step 713, the receiving end calculates a channel estimation value by multiplying each of the pilot symbols included in sliding windows by a corresponding weight factor and then equalizing the pilot symbols multiplied together with the weight factors.
As described above, a system can acquire an optimal channel estimation value for a time-varying radio channel by performing a sliding window channel estimation by applying a weight in a broadband wireless communication system.
While the invention has been shown and described with reference to certain exemplary embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims and their equivalents.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
2007-0029554 | Mar 2007 | KR | national |