Parametric versus nonparametric data-aided channel estimation in a multipath fading environment

This paper compares a parametric and a non-parametric channel estimation method in a multipath fading environment. In the parametric method the gains and delays are estimated and these estimates are used to compute the samples of the received symbol pulse. In the nonparametric method the samples of the received pulse are estimated directly, ignoring the underlying multipath channel structure. We compare these two channel estimation methods in terms of accuracy (characterized by the MSE on the samples of the received pulse) and computational complexity. We also investigate the influence of channel estimation errors on the BER of a decision feedback equalizer.