An Enhanced Channel Estimation for IEEE 802.15.4 OFDM Receiver in High-Speed Mobile IoT Communication Systems

Currently, orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM), standardized in IEEE 802.15.4, has attracted attention as a transmission scheme for higher data rates, long-distance transmissions, and mobile communications for the expansion of Internet of Things (IoT) applications as well as for legacy IoT applications, such as smart metering systems and home-area networks. In particular, receiving schemes using IEEE 802.15.4-based OFDM have been actively examined to realize mobile communication. Previous studies used the long training field (LTF) and pilot subcarriers for channel estimation of multipath fading, achieving mobile communication with data rates of 100 Kb/s or above at moving speeds of up to 40 km/h in an urban environment. In a previous study, channel estimates were obtained by repeating channel estimates from the LTF and pilot subcarriers in the time domain and by interpolating the estimates in the frequency domain. This study proposes a receiving scheme for IEEE 802.15.4 OFDM aimed at high-speed mobile IoT communication systems. In the time axis direction, the proposed scheme obtains channel estimates in the same manner as previous schemes. However, in the frequency axis, the proposed scheme obtains the channel estimates by copying estimates of neighboring subcarriers according to the coherence bandwidth of the multipath fading channel to update the channel estimates frequently. Computer simulation results show that the proposed scheme, including delay spread estimation can achieve mobile communication with a data rate of 100 Kb/s at moving speed of 200 km/h in the urban environment.