Systems and methods for determining the number of channel estimation symbols based on the channel coherence bandwidth

A wireless communication device comprising:

• a wireless receiver operable to generate a channel estimate of a wireless channel, wherein the number of symbols in the channel estimate is based on a cyclic prefix length;
• and
• a wireless transmitter operable to communicate the channel estimate in a data packet, wherein the wireless receiver is operable to perform time averaging over the plurality of channel estimation symbols if the data packet comprises a plurality of channel estimation symbols, and wherein the wireless receiver is operable to perform frequency averaging over a plurality of sub-carriers of a single channel estimation symbol if the data packet comprises a single channel estimation symbol.

A wireless communication device comprising:

• a wireless receiver operable to estimate one or more characteristics of a signal communicated on a channel, wherein the one or more characteristics comprise cyclic prefix length of the signal and are indicative of a coherency bandwidth of the channel, and wherein the wireless receiver operable to generate a one-symbol channel estimate when the cyclic prefix length is less than a predetermined fraction of a symbol length and a two-symbol channel estimate when the cyclic prefix length is greater than the predetermined fraction of the symbol length;
• and
• a wireless transmitter operable to communicate the channel estimate in a data packet, wherein the wireless receiver is operable to perform time averaging over the plurality of channel estimation symbols if the data packet comprises a plurality of channel estimation symbols, and wherein the wireless receiver is operable to perform frequency averaging over a plurality of sub-carriers of a single channel estimation symbol if the data packet comprises a single channel estimation symbol.