We consider the decoding of bit interleaved coded modulation (BICM) applied
to both multiband and MIMO OFDM systems for typical scenarios where only a
noisy (possibly very bad) estimate of the channel is provided by sending a
limited number of pilot symbols. First, by using a Bayesian framework involving
the channel a posteriori density, we adopt a practical decoding metric that is
robust to the presence of channel estimation errors. Then this metric is used
in the demapping part of BICM multiband and MIMO OFDM receivers. We also
compare our results with the performance of a mismatched decoder that replaces
the channel by its estimate in the decoding metric. Numerical results over both
realistic UWB and theoretical Rayleigh fading channels show that the proposed
method provides significant gain in terms of bit error rate compared to the
classical mismatched detector, without introducing any additional complexity