Method for near optimal joint channel estimation and data detection for COFDM systems

A method for estimating channel characteristics in a multicarrier transmission system comprising the steps of:

• receiving a multicarrier signal;
• applying Fast Fourier transformations to carriers of said multicarrier signal;
• estimating channel characteristics of a multicarrier channel over which said multicarrier signal was transmitted using iterative backward processing, wherein said iterative backward processing further comprises the steps of;
• determining if a block in a frame in the received signal is correct;
• tentatively decoding said block of said received signal;
• calculating a tentative reference signal based on a previous training block;
• generating a tentative estimation of channel characteristics using said tentative reference signal;
• decoding said block of said received signal;
• calculating a reference signal based on said received block;
• generating an estimation of channel characteristics using said reference signal;
• decrementing the block number;
• determining if the beginning of said frame has been reached;
• accepting a next block of received signal if said beginning of said frame has not been reached;
• iteratively performing the steps above;
• and
• decoding said transformed multicarrier signal.

A method for estimating channel characteristics in a multicarrier transmission system comprising the steps of:

• receiving a multicarrier signal;
• applying Fast Fourier transformations to carriers of said multicarrier signal;
• estimating channel characteristics of a multicarrier channel over which said multicarrier signal was transmitted concurrently using iterative processing and iterative backward processing;
• and
• decoding said transformed multicarrier signal.