Joint Channel Estimation and Equalization Using New AFB Output Signal Models for FBMC/OQAM Systems

Filter bank multicarrier with offset quadrature amplitude modulation (FBMC/OQAM) has been studied as an alternative waveform for post-orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) wireless communications. However, due to the intrinsic imaginary inter-carrier/inter-symbol interference of FBMC/OQAM signals, accurate channel estimation and equalization remain open issues for FBMC/OQAM systems in dispersive channels. In this article, two new signal models of the analysis filter bank (AFB) output are first derived in the absence of any channel assumption and in the presence of a relaxed channel assumption, respectively. Based on the new-built models, initial channel estimation with least squares (LS) (IniCE-LS) is presented and its output is used as the initial condition of recursive weighted LS (RWLS) estimation; moreover, non-iterative and iterative channel equalization combined with RWLS channel estimation (i.e., N-ICE-RWLS and ICE-RWLS) are proposed by using the real-time reconstructed FBMC/OQAM data symbols as pilots. The proposed N-ICE-RWLS and ICE-RWLS schemes not only allow to improve channel estimation and equalization performance, but also achieve high transmission efficiency. Considering the requirements of practical application, we further develop the low-complexity implementation methods of N-ICE-RWLS and ICE-RWLS. All these schemes are validated by analyzing the channel estimation accuracy and bit error rate (BER) over various frequency selective channels.