Performance evaluation of channel estimation techniques for a proposed '4G' MC-CDMA based system in a time varying channel

This paper investigates the performance of channel estimation techniques applied to a proposed Fourth Generation (4G) Multi Carrier - Code Division Multiple Access (MC-CDMA) system. Coherent detection requires a per-sub band estimation of the channel frequency response for each Coded Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (COFDM) symbol. This paper compares the performance of a number of Pilot Symbol Assisted Modulation (PSAM) methods for achieving such estimates. Performance results are characterised by bit-error-rate (BER), data throughput (DT) and mean-squared error (MSE) for ETSI UTRA specified channel environments. It is shown that in an indoor environment, FFT filtering provides superior data throughput performance, whereas in a high Doppler vehicular environment, a reduced complexity Wiener filter is able to offer the best performance.