Efficient Channel Delay Estimation for OFDM Systems over Doubly-Selective Fading Channels

Abstract

In this paper, we propose an efficient channel delay estimation method for orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) systems, especially over doubly-selective fading channels which are selective in both the symbol time domain and subcarrier frequency domain. For the doubly-selective fading channels in single frequency network (SFN), long and strong echoes exist and thus the conventional discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) based channel delay estimation system often fails to produce the exact channel delay profile. Based on the analysis of the discrete-time frequency response of the channel impulse response (CIR) coefficients in the DFT-based channel delay estimation system, we develop a method to effectively extract the true CIR from the aliased signals by employing a simple narrow-band low-pass filter (NB-LPF). The performance of the proposed system is verified using the COST207 TU6 SFN channel model.