Widely Linear vs. Conventional Subspace-Based Estimation of SIMO Flat-Fading Channels: Mean-Squared Error Analysis

We analyze the mean-squared error (MSE) performance of widely linear (WL) and conventional subspace-based channel estimation for single-input multiple-output (SIMO) flat-fading channels employing binary phase-shift-keying (BPSK) modulation when the covariance matrix is estimated using a finite number of samples. The conventional estimator suffers from a phase ambiguity that reduces to a sign ambiguity for the WL estimator. We derive closed-form expressions for the MSE of the two estimators under four different ambiguity resolution scenarios. The first scenario is optimal resolution, which minimizes the Euclidean distance between the channel estimate and the actual channel. The second scenario assumes that a randomly chosen coefficient of the actual channel is known and the third assumes that the one with the largest magnitude is known. The fourth scenario is the more realistic case where pilot symbols are used to resolve the ambiguities. Our work demonstrates that there is a strong relationship between the accuracy of ambiguity resolution and the relative performance of WL and conventional subspace-based estimators, and shows that the less information available about the actual channel for ambiguity resolution, or the lower the accuracy of this information, the higher the performance gap in favor of the WL estimator.Comment: 20 pages, 7 figure

Performance limits of alphabet diversities for FIR SISO channel identification

10 pagesInternational audienceFinite Impulse Responses (FIR) of Single-Input Single-Output (SISO) channels can be blindly identified from second order statistics of transformed data, for instance when the channel is excited by Binary Phase Shift Keying (BPSK), Minimum Shift Keying (MSK) or Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK) inputs. Identifiability conditions are derived by considering that noncircularity induces diversity. Theoretical performance issues are addressed to evaluate the robustness of standard subspace-based estimators with respect to these identifiability conditions. Then benchmarks such as asymptotically minimum variance (AMV) bounds based on various statistics are presented. Some illustrative examples are eventually given where Monte Carlo experiments are compared to theoretical performances. These comparisons allow to quantify limits to the use of the alphabet diversities for the identification of FIR SISO channels, and to demonstrate the robustness of algorithms based on High-Order Statistics