Methods and devices for channel estimation

A communication device comprising:

• a transceiver configured to receive reference and data signals from a network;
• a baseband modem comprising processing circuitry configured to iteratively perform channel estimation based on the received reference and data signals, the processing circuitry comprising:
• a channel estimator configured to determine a respective channel estimate in each respective iteration of one or more iterations subsequent to a first iteration, the respective channel estimate based on a previous channel estimate from a previous iteration in addition to one or more pilot symbols from a received reference signal and one or more data symbols from a received data signal;
• and
• a memory configured to store the previous channel estimate.

A method of performing channel estimation at a device, the method comprising:

• in a first iteration of channel estimation, determining a channel estimate based on at least a first pilot symbol of a reference signal received at the device;
• and
• in each respective iteration of one or more ensuing iterations:
• determining a reference channel estimate based on at least one subsequent pilot symbol of the reference signal received at the device;
• decoding a data signal received at the device based on the reference channel estimate;
• determining a data channel estimate based on at least one data symbol from the decoded data signal;
• and
• calculating a channel estimate for the respective iteration based on a channel estimate from a previous iteration in addition to the reference channel estimate and the data channel estimate,
• further comprising, in each respective iteration of one or more ensuing iterations, a turbo decoder outputting a log likelihood ratio (LLR) of information and parity bits of the decoded data signal.

A non-transitory computer readable medium with program instructions, which when executed by a processor of a device, direct the device to perform the a channel estimation, comprising:

• in a first iteration of channel estimation, determining a channel estimate based on at least a first pilot symbol of a reference signal received at the device;
• and
• in each respective iteration of one or more ensuing iterations:
• determining a reference channel estimate based on at least one subsequent pilot symbol of the reference signal received at the device;
• decoding a data signal received at the device based on the reference channel estimate;
• determining a data channel estimate based on at least one data symbol from the decoded data signal;
• and
• calculating a channel estimate for the respective iteration based on a channel estimate from a previous iteration in addition to the reference channel estimate and the data channel estimate.