Adaptive Channel Estimation in Pilot Channel based DS-CDMA Systems

Abstract

The performance of a coherent rake receiver of DSCDMA systems is significantly affected by the accuracy of channel estimation. The performance of the channel estimator can be improved by employing a channel estimation filter (CEF) whose impulse response is adjusted according to the channel condition. In this paper, we consider the design of an adaptive channel estimator for DSCDMA systems with a pilot channel. The proposed channel estimator estimates the channel condition, which can be performed without having exact a priori information on the operating condition. The estimated channel condition adjusts the impulse response of the CEF. Numerical results show that the use of the proposed channel estimator can provide BER performance quite robust to a wide range of channel condition.