A Novel Pilot Expansion Approach for MIMO Channel Estimation

Abstract

A training-based MIMO channel estimation scheme is presented to operate in severe frequency and time selective fading channels. Besides the new pilot bits designed from the ‘Paley-Hadamard’ matrix to exploit its orthogonal and ‘Toeplitz-like’ structures and minimising its pilot length, a novel pilot expansion technique is proposed to estimate the length of the channel impulse response, by flexibly extending its pilot length as required in order to capture the number of multipath existed within the MIMO channel. The pilot expansion can also help to deduce the initial channel variation and its Doppler rate which can be subsequently applied for MIMO channel tracking using decision feedback Kalman filter during the data payload.