ISSN (Print) : 0974-6846

Indian Journal of Science and Technology, Vol 9(S1), DOI: 10.17485/ijst/2016/v9iS1/110173, December 2016 ISSN (Online) : 0974-5645

Channel Estimation for MIMO-OFDM Systems

Shahid Manzoor*, Sunil Govinda and Adnan Salem
Faculity of Engineering,Technology and Built Environment, EE Department, UCSI University, KL, Malaysia;
shahid@ucsiuniversity.edu.my, sunil@ucsiuniversity.edu.my, adnan0bam@gmail.com

Abstract
Channel estimation is a very important process in the operation of MIMO-OFDM systems, as it is vital for
accurately estimating the Channel Impulse Response (CIR) of the channel under various conditions. As such, it is
useful to have a Simulink simulation to model the behavior of the channel estimation process in a MIMO-OFDM
system, in order to study the error rate of the system under different modulation and SNR conditions. As one of the
most common transmitter diversity schemes used in MIMO-OFDM systems is Alamouti’s Space Time Block Code
(STBC), a Simulink model is developed for performing channel estimation, assuming that the STBC is used.
The model will then generate graphs of error rates vs SNR for different modulation schemes. The results show great
improvement in Bit Error Rate (BER) by utilizing a Reed-Solomon Forward Error Correction code (RS-FEC) method.

Keywords: Alamouti’s ST Block Code, MIMO-OFDM, STBC, Channel Estimation, IEEE802.16a, MIMO-OFDM MATLAB®/
Simulink

1. Introduction tational complexity by exploiting various properties

The IEEE 802.16 standard has been developed
for WiMAX (short for World Interoperability for
Microwave Access), which is intended to deliver high
data rates over long distance1. MIMO communica-
tions has been incorporated as an option in the
IEEE 802.16e version of this standard, where 2 ×
1 and 4 × 4 MIMO configurations are considered
(IEEE 802.16e Part 16 (2004); IEEE 802.16e/ D12: Part
16 (2006)). In some cases, the multiple antennas are
used to carry high data rates to the customers, and in
others, mostly for cellular networks, the multiple anten-
nas are used for beam-forming to improve the overall
network capacity, i.e., number of supported users. Due
to the parallel nature of data transmission and the use
of multiple antennas on the transmitting and receiv-
ing ends, it is necessary to simulate and study the
performance of the system under various channel con-
ditions, so that the estimation errors can be estimated
and reduced. Because of this, various channel estima-
tion techniques has been proposed in the literature for
improving the estimation process at a lower compu-
of the channel model.
One of the more common channel estimation
techniques in use for OFDM systems is Alamouti’s ST
Block Code (STBC), which is very useful when perform-
ing channel estimation for OFDM systems. A Simulink
model is developed for investigating the error rate for
different modulation schemes for systems using STBC2.
In this paper, to reduce the error rate, a Reed-
Solomon Forward Error Correction technique is used
to enable some of the incorrectly transmitted bits to be
corrected at the receiver side, thus reducing the error
rate further. Simulations are performed to investigate
the improvement in error rates when a Reed-Solomon
Forward Error Correction method is used in the system.
2. Simulation of Alamouti’s STBC
Alamouti’s Space Time Block Code for 2x2 MIMO-
OFDM systems is basically a transmitter diversity
scheme used to improve the signal quality of the
received signal, whereby the same pilot is being sent
from both transmitters at different times. This is done

*Author for correspondence

 Channel Estimation for MIMO-OFDM Systems
to reduce errors caused by fading and noise in the
communication channel. The scheme for a 2x2 MIMO
system is as shown in Figure 13.
Figure 1. Almouti’s STBC for 2x2 MIMO systems.
3. Channel Estimation Method
The channel estimation method to be simulated
exploits the fact that the Channel Impulse Response
(CIR) length is usually shorter than the cyclic prefix
length. This means that the CIRs of all the channels can
be separated easily from a mixture of CIRs in the time
domain, by taking the signal at different time durations
to be the CIR for a different channel. The theory behind
it is as follows.
First, based on Alamouti’s STBC scheme, the same
preamble/pilot is transmitted at each transmitter at
different times. Assuming that the preamble signal,
x(n), is transmitted on the first transmitter, and n0
is the number of samples the preamble is cyclically
rotated before being sent on the second transmitter,
the received signal, r1(n), received at the first receiver
can be written as:
r1(n)= x(n) * h11(n) + x(n – n0) * h21(n) (1)
Here, h11(n) and h21(n) is the Channel Impulse
Response (CIR) between transmitter 1 and receiver
1, and the CIR between transmitter 1 and receiver 2
respectively.
If we calculate the Discrete Fourier Transform of
r1(n), we obtain:
R1(k) = X(k)H11(k) + X(k)H21(k)e-jwn0 (2)
In this case, H11(k) is the Channel Frequency
Response (CFR) for the channel between transmitter 1
2 Vol 9 (S1) | December 2016 | www.indjst.org
and receiver 1, and H21(k) is the CFR for the channel
between transmitter 2 and receiver 1.
Dividing by X(k) gives:
Y1(k) = H11(k) + H21(k)e-jwn0 (3)
Taking the Inverse Discrete Fourier Transform of
Y1(k), we obtain:
y1(n)= h11(n) + h21(n – n0) (4)
If the CIR length is shorter than the cyclic prefix
length, then the CIRs for transmitter 1 and receiver 1
(h11(n)) and transmitter 2 and receiver 1 (h21(n)) will
be sufficiently separated in time to be separated from
the mixture, y1(n)4.
3.1 Simulink Modeling
The end to end IEEE802.16 OFDM MATLAB®/
Simulink model created to simulate the channel esti-
mation process of the system using STBC which includes:
3.1.1 Pilot Sequence Generator Block
The purpose of the Pilot Sequence Generator block is
to generate the pilot and data sequences, as shown in
Figure 2.
The Generate Pilot and Generate Data MATLAB®
Function blocks above generate the pilot and data
sequences, which can be changed by changing the codes
in the respective MATLAB function blocks.
A pilot frame is sent once every 5 frames, with the
other 4 frames being data frames. This can also be set
by changing the Frames per Pilot input to the block.
3.1.2 OFDM Transmitter Block
The purpose of the OFDM Transmitter block is to gen-
erate the shifted version of the pilot sequence, based
on the number of shift samples passed in as input to the
block, as shown in the Figure 35:
3.1.3 CIR Sequence Generator Block
The CIR Sequence Generator block generates the
Channel Impulse Response of the channel between
the transmitter and the receiver, so that the received sig-
nal can be generated. The contents of the block are as
shown in the Figure 4, for the CIR for the channel
between the first transmitter and the first and sec-
ond receivers respectively.
Indian Journal of Science and Technology

3.1.4 Channel
The Channel block simulates the effect of the chan-
nel on the transmitted signal. The channel is modeled
as the convolution of the transmitted signal with the
Channel Impulse Response (CIR), in the presence of
additive noise, as shown in the Figure 5.
Figure 2. Pilot sequence generator.
Figure 3. OFDM transmitter block.
Figure 4. CIR sequence generator block.
Figure 5. Channel.
3.1.5 OFDM Receiver Block
The OFDM Receiver block is used to simulate the effect
of fading and noise on the channel. Different blocks
Vol 9 (S1) | December 2016 | www.indjst.org
Shahid Manzoor, Sunil Govinda and Adnan Salem
are used to investigate the effects of the different chan-
nel conditions on different modulation types, as shown
below in Figure 6.
Figure 6. OFDM receiver block.
As can be seen from the figure, different blocks are
used for distortions caused by different modulation
types, such as QPSK, BPSK, 16-QAM and 16-PSK.
Each of the modulation blocks will add a certain
type of fading or noise to the channel (AWGN, Rayleigh
Fading, Rician Fading and MIMO Channel) to the sys-
tem. The block in one of the modulation blocks (in this
case QPSK) is as shown in the following Figure 7.
The system first converts the data to be transmit-
ted into binary bits, before being sent to the QPSK
encoder. Different types of fading/noise are then added
to the modulated signal, before being decoded by the
QPSK decoder. In order to improve the error rate of
the system further, a Reed-Solomon Forward Error
Correction code encoder and decoder is performed
before modulation and after demodulation respectively.
Indian Journal of Science and Technology 3
 Channel Estimation for MIMO-OFDM Systems

the first transmitter and first receiver, h11(n), and

the second transmitter and first receiver, h21(n)6–9. The
details of the block are as shown in Figure 8.

4. Results
The simulations are performed for the developed sys-
tem to plot the results to show the Bit Error Rate (BER)
vs. SNR for different modulation types and different
channel distortion.
The results show in Figure 9, 10, and 11 for distor-
tion channels of Rayleigh Fading, Rician Fading, and
SUI channel, respectively for the model that (RS-FEC) is
not utilized yet in the system for different modulations
types.
The result show in Figure 12, 13, and 14 for Rayleigh
Fading, Rician Fading, and SUI channel respectively
with utilized (RS-FEC) in the system for different modu-
lation types.

5. Conclusion
In this paper channel estimation based on STBC in
MIMO-OFDM system is performed. The result of
performance has been shown for different modulation
Figure 7. QPSK block.
schemes. The attempted for improve the error rate
of the system by using Reed-Solomon Forward Error
Correct is successfully achieved.

Figure 9. BER vs. SNR without proposed method.

Figure 10. BER vs. SNR without proposed method.

Figure 11. BER vs. SNR without proposed method.

Figure 13. BER vs. SNR with proposed method.

Figure 14. BER vs. SNR with proposed method.

Figure 15. BER vs. SNR with proposed method.

Figure 8. Channel estimation (STBC) block. 6. References

3.1.6 Channel Estimation (STBC) Block 1. IEEE802.16a. IEEE Standard for Local and
Metropolitan Area Networks. Part 16: Air Interface for
The Channel Estimation (STBC) block performs chan- Fixed Broadband Wireless Access Systems–Medium
nel estimation of the system by calculating the mixture Access Control Modifications and Additional Physical
of the Channel Impulse Responses (CIR) between Layer Specifications for 2-11GHz; 2003.

4 Vol 9 (S1) | December 2016 | www.indjst.org Indian Journal of Science and Technology

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Shahid Manzoor, Sunil Govinda and Adnan Salem
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