Method of estimating fading coefficients of channels and of receiving symbols and relative single or multi-antenna receiver and transmitter

A method for receiving symbols of a sequence transmitted on at least two transmission channels through AM-PSK modulated signals, a sequence of known symbols being established and transmitted for the sequence of symbols for estimating the fading coefficients of the transmission channels, the method comprising:

• in each symbol period, receiving a linear combination signal as a combination of the AM-PSK modulated signals;
• extracting a first DC component from the received linear combination signal via a coherent demodulation locked to a first phase;
• extracting at least a second DC component from the received linear combination signal via a coherent demodulation locked to a second phase;
• generating first estimations of each transmitted symbol based upon the estimated fading coefficients, the DC components and mutual outphasing between the AM-PSK modulated signals;
• estimating unknown phases corresponding to the transmitted symbols based upon the respective first estimations;
• estimating further fading coefficients of the channels based upon the first estimations, the DC components, the mutual outphasing between the AM-PSK modulated signals and estimations of previously transmitted symbols;
• at the end of a symbol period, determining the values of transmitted symbols based upon the respective estimated phases in the symbol period.

A method for determining symbol values from a received signal based upon a plurality of channels carrying AM-PSK modulated signals, the method comprising:

• extracting a first DC component from the received signal via a coherent demodulation locked to a first phase;
• extracting a second DC component from the received signal via a coherent demodulation locked to a second phase;
• generating first estimations of each transmitted symbol based upon estimated fading coefficients, and the first and second DC components;
• estimating unknown phases corresponding to the transmitted symbols based upon the respective first estimations;
• and
• at the end of a symbol period, determining the symbol values based upon the respective estimated phases.

A receiver comprising:

• at least one receiving unit configured to receive Amplitude Modulated-Phase Shift Keyed (AM-PSK) modulated signals corresponding to symbols of a sequence;
• a plurality of encoders configured to generate signals representing estimations of phases associated with a transmitted symbol, input respectively with a first estimation signal representing a first estimation of a value of the transmitted symbol;
• a plurality of extraction paths configured to extract DC components from the received signal via coherent demodulation locked to the phases;
• and
• at least one digital unit configured to generate signals representing estimations of fading coefficients of channels used for transmitting the symbols and signals representing the first estimations of the value of the transmitted symbol, based upon the DC components and previous estimations of fading coefficients.

A transmitter comprising:

• a source of symbols to be transmitted as Amplitude Modulated-Phase Shift Keyed (AM-PSK) signals;
• an encoder configured to be input with the symbols and generate respective signals representing code words;
• a PSK-mapper circuit configured to generate signals representing the phases based upon the code words;
• and
• a modulator configured to receive the signals representing the phases and the code words, and generate corresponding AM-PSK signals to be transmitted.