Iterative channel estimation using virtual pilot signals for MIMO-OFDM systems

The number of transmit and receive antennas in multi-input multi-output (MIMO) systems is increasing rapidly to enhance the throughput and reliability of next-generation wireless systems. Benefits of large size MIMO systems, however, can be realized only when the quality of estimated channels is ensured at the transmitter and receiver side alike. In this paper, we introduce a new decision-directed channel estimation technique dealing with pilot shortage in the MIMO-OFDM systems. The proposed channel estimator uses soft symbol decisions obtained by iterative detection and decoding (IDD) scheme to enhance the quality of channel estimate. Using the soft information from the decoders, the proposed channel estimator selects reliable data tones, subtracts interstream interferences, and performs re-estimation of the channels. We analyze the optimal data tone selection criterion, which accounts for the reliability of symbol decisions and correlation of channels between the data tones and pilot tones. From numerical simulations, we show that the proposed channel estimator achieves considerable improvement in system performance over the conventional channel estimators in realistic MIMO-OFDM scenarios.