This full text paper was peer reviewed at the direction of IEEE Communications Society subject matter experts

for publication in the WCNC 2008 proceedings.

Channel Estimation for LTE Uplink in High Doppler Spread

Bahattin Karakaya
Department of Electrical Engineering Istanbul University Istanbul, 34320, Turkey Email: bahattin@istanbul.edu.tr

H seyin Arslan u
Department of Electrical Engineering University of South Florida Tampa, FL, 33620 USA Email: arslan@eng.usf.edu

Hakan Ali Crpan

Department of Electrical Engineering Istanbul University Istanbul, 34320, Turkey Email: hcirpan@istanbul.edu.tr

AbstractLong Term Evolution (LTE) systems are expected to use Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access (SCFDMA) for the uplink. Being very similar to the OFDMA technology, SC-FDMA is sensitive to frequency offsets, which leads to inter-carrier interference (ICI). In this paper, we propose an interpolation algorithm based on adaptive order polynomial tting for LTE uplink channel estimation to mitigate ICI in high Doppler spread. Simulation results show that the proposed method has better performance compared to the conventional schemes.
Fig. 1.

A Frame
#1 Slot #2 Slot

...
#1 Symb.

#i Slot
#2 Symb.

#j Slot

...
# Symb.

# 19 Slot

# 20 Slot

...

A Subframe
Cyclic Prefix Data Reference Signal ( Training Symbol )

An LTE Uplink type 1 frame structure with extended CP.

I. I NTRODUCTION 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) is the name given to a project within the Third Generation Partnership Project to improve the UMTS mobile phone standard to cope with future requirements. The LTE project is not a standard, but it will result in the new evolved release 8 of the UMTS standard, including mostly or wholly extensions and modications of the UMTS system. Release 8s air interface is assumed to use OFDMA for the downlink and Single Carrier FDMA (SCFDMA) for the uplink [1]. SC-FDMA is introduced in order to keep the peak to average power ratio (PAPR) as low as possible. SC-FDMA has similar throughput performance and essentially the same overall complexity as OFDMA. Furthermore, it can be viewed as DFT-spread OFDMA, where time domain data symbols are transformed to frequency domain by a discrete Fourier transform (DFT) before going through OFDMA modulation [2]. Hence, similar to OFDMA, SC-FDMA is highly sensitive to frequency offsets caused by oscillator inaccuracies and the Doppler shift, which destroy the subcarrier orthogonality and give rise to ICI. Several channel estimation techniques have been proposed to mitigate ICI in OFDM. In [3], receiver antenna diversity has been proposed, but it is less effective in high normalized Doppler spread. In [4], the proposed method is based on a piece-wise linear approximation for channel time-variations, but it tracks the channel variations by employing a comb-type pilot subcarrier allocation scheme. In LTE uplink, however, pilot symbols are used instead. As shown in Fig. 1, each slot in LTE Uplink has a pilot symbol in its fourth symbol [1]. In [5] Modied Kalman Filter based time-domain channel estimation approach for OFDM with fast fading channels have been proposed. The proposed receiver structure models the time-varying channel as AR-process tracks the channel with MKF, uses curve tting, extrapolation and MMSE time domain equalizer. In contrast to [5], we propose a Kalman Filter based channel estimation method with interpolation that employs frequence domain equalizer. Interpolation is applied with polynomial tting, whose order is determined adaptively according to the amount of Doppler shift and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). In this method, rst, frequency domain least squares (LS) channel estimation is applied to pilot symbols in consecutive slots to obtain channel estimates. Then, estimated channels taps are used as initial values for tracking the tap variation within the pilots by employing a Kalman lter. Finally, adaptive order polynomial tting is applied to channel estimates in consecutive slots in order to estimate the channel taps for the data symbols between the pilot symbols. II. S YSTEM M ODEL Fig. 2 shows the discrete baseband equivalent system model. We assume an N -point DFT for spreading pth users time domain signal d(n) into frequency domain: 1 D(p) () = N
N 1 n=0

d(p) (n)ej2n/N .

(1)

After spreading, D(p) () is mapped to the k th subcarrier S (p) (k) as follows S (p) (k) = D(p) (), 0, k = N () otherwise
(p)

(2)

1525-3511/08/$25.00 2008 IEEE

This full text paper was peer reviewed at the direction of IEEE Communications Society subject matter experts for publication in the WCNC 2008 proceedings.

Fig. 2.

SC-FDMA transceiver system model.

where N () denotes N-element mapping set of pth user. If it has consecutively arranged elements, the type of mapping is called localized. Otherwise, it is called distributed mapping, which is used for frequency diversity [1]. The transmitted single carrier signal at sample time m is given by 1 s(p) (m) = M
P 1 L1 p=0 l=0 M 1 k=0

(p)

By using (3) in (6), the received signal becomes 1 y(m) = M

M 1 L1

S(k)
k=0 l=0

h(m, l)ej

2k(ml) M

S (p) (k)ej2mk/M .

(3)

By dening H(k, m) = be written as 1 y(m) = M

M 1

L1 j2lk/M , l=0 h(m, l)e

The received signal at base station can be expressed as y (p) (m) = h(p) (m, l)s(p) (m l) + w(m), (4)

S(k)H(k, m)ej2mk/M + w(m).

k=0

The FFT output at kth subcarrier can be expressed as Y (k) = = 1 M

M 1 m=0

where h(p) (m, l) is the sample spaced channel response of the lth path during the time m of pth user, L is the total number of paths of the frequency selective fading channel, and w(m) is the additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) with zero mean 2 and variance E{|w(m)|2 } = w . The fading channel coefcients h(m, l) are modeled as zero mean complex Gaussian random variables. Based on the Wide Sense Stationary Uncorrelated Scattering (WSSUS) assumption, the fading channel coefcients in different delay taps are statistically independent. In time domain fading coefcients are correlated and have Doppler power spectrum density modeled in Jakes [6] and has an autocorrelation function given by
2 E{h(p) (m, l)h(p) (n, l)} = h(p) (l) J0 (2fd Ts (m n)). (5) 2 where h(p) (l) denotes the power of the channel coefcients (p)

y(m)ej2mk/M (9)

S(k)H(k) + I(k) + W (k),

M 1

where H(k) represents frequency domain channel response as H(k) = 1 M H(k, m),
k=0

I(k) is ICI caused by the time-varying nature of the channel given as I(k) = 1 M
M 1 M 1

S(i)
i=0,i=k m=0

H(i, m)ej2m(ik)/M ,

and W (k) represents Fourier transform of noise vector w(m) 1 W (k) = M

M 1 m=0

w(m)ej2mk/M .

(p) of pth user and fd is the Doppler frequency of pth user (p) in Hertz. The term fd Ts represents the normalized Doppler frequency. J0 (.) is the zeroth order Bessel function of the rst

kind. In this paper, we assume that there is a single user, P = 1, so (4) becomes
L1

y(m) =
l=0

h(m, l)s(m l) + w(m).

(6)

Because of the I(k) term, there is an irreducible error oor even in the training sequences since pilot symbols are also corrupted by ICI. Time varying channel destroys the orthogonality between subcarriers. Therefore, channel estimation should be performed before the FFT block. In order to compensate for the ICI, a high quality estimate of the channel impulse response is required in the receiver. In this paper, the proposed channel estimation is done in time domain, where

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TFFI TFFI

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+ w(m). (7) y(m) can

(8)

(10)

(11)

(12)

This full text paper was peer reviewed at the direction of IEEE Communications Society subject matter experts for publication in the WCNC 2008 proceedings.

time varying channel coefcients are tracked by Kalman lter within the training intervals. Variation of channel taps during the data symbols between two consecutive pilots is found by interpolation. We assume that equalization is performed in frequency domain after the subcarrier demapping block. Data are obtained after the demapping as (13) X() = Y (k), k = N () = D()H(k) + I(k) + W (k) , k = N (). III. C HANNEL E STIMATION A. Frequency Domain Least Squares Estimation We use frequency domain least squares estimation to nd the initial values of the Kalman lter. Below, (.)0 denotes the initial value. Channel frequency response, which corresponds to used subcarriers, can be found by the following equation
X()Dt () , H0 (k) = |Dt ()|2

h(m + 1) can be obtained by a set of recursions e(m) = y(m) y (m) = y(m) sT (m)h(m)
2 K(m) = P(m)s (m) w + sT (m)P(m)s (m) 1

(21) (22)

where P(m) = E

h(m) h(m)

h(m) h(m)

h(m + 1) = h(m) + K(m)e(m)

(23)

P(m + 1) = I K(m)sT (m) P(m) + Q(m + 1). (24) C. Adaptive order polynomial tting In matrix notation, the equation for polynomial tting is given by [11] hT (l), hT (l) i j
T

k = N ()

(14)

= T , T i j

a,

(25)

where Dt () is a training sequence known by receiver.

L1

H(k) =
l=0

1 M

M 1 m=0

h(m, l)ej2kl/M ,

(15)

where a = [a0 , a1 , . . . , ak ]T are the polynomial coefcients, k is the order of the polynomial, i and j de note consecutive slot numbers depicted in Fig. 1, hi (l) = T h(mi,0 , l), . . . , h(mi,M 1 , l) are estimated ith slot pilots lth channel tap vector, mi,b and i is given as 1 mi,0 1 mi,1 i = . . . . . . 1 mi,M 1 is time index along ith slot pilot, m2 i,0 m2 i,1 .. . . . . mk i,0 mk i,1 mk 1 i,M . (26)

1 dening h(l) = M m=0 h(m, l), to nd initial values for Kalman ltering in time domain, we can write IFFT of H0 (k) as 1 (16) H0 (k)ej2kl/M h0 (l) = N k=N ()

M 1

B. Kalman Filtering Time varying channel taps can be expressed in the form of an autoregressive (AR) process, in the case of the rst order AR model the vector form of the channel is given in [7] and [8] as h(m + 1) = h(m) + v(m + 1) (17) where h(m) = [h(m, 0), , h(m, L 1)]. Equation (17) is called process equation in Kalman ltering [9]. v(m) and IL are called process noise and state transition matrix, respectively. Correlation matrix of process noise and state transition matrix can be obtained through the Yule-Walker equation [10]
2 Q(m) = (1 2 )diag(h(m) )

m2 1 i,M

By the matrix equation in (25), we can nd polynomial coefcients according to the least squares as a = T
1

T h(l).

(27)

In this paper, we claim that the order of the polynomial can be selected adaptively. Fig. 3 illustrates the appropriate polynomial orders according to maximum Doppler shift versus SNR. D. Interpolation Channel taps through the symbols, which are between the ith and j th slot pilots, can be found by polynomial coefcients as T T (28) hT (l), , hT = T , , T a.
1 1

(18) (19)

= J0 (2fd Ts ),

2 2 2 2 where h(m) = h(m,0) , h(m,1) , . . . , h(m,L1) is the power delay prole of the channel. The equivalent of (6), which is a measurement equation in the state-space model of Kalman lter, can be shown in vector form as

Proper polynomial orders are determined using the following mean squared identication error (MSIE) equation for various Doppler shift and SNR values via simulation. M SIE = 1 L 1 M |h(m, l) h(m, l)|2 .
m

y(m) = sT (m)h(m) + w(m),

T

(20)

where s(m) = [s(m), s(m 1), , s(m L + 1)] . The channel estimate

(29)

This full text paper was peer reviewed at the direction of IEEE Communications Society subject matter experts for publication in the WCNC 2008 proceedings.

Polynomial Fitting Order

0 dB

800 Hz

5 dB

3rd Order Region

700 Hz

10 dB

600 Hz Maximum Doppler Shift

15 dB

2nd Order Region

MSIE

500 Hz

20 dB

400 Hz

25 dB

1st Order Region

300 Hz

30 dB

35 dB

200 Hz
40 dB

100 Hz
45 dB 0 dB

Interpolation v=60 km/h Interpolation v=120 km/h Extrapolation v=60km/h Extrapolation v=120 km/h

0 Hz 0 dB

5 dB

10 dB

15 dB SNR

20 dB

25 dB

30 dB

35 dB

10 dB

20 dB

30 dB SNR

40 dB

50 dB

60 dB

Fig. 3. The orders of polynomials appropriate for being used are shown in separate regions. TABLE I LTE U PLINK S IMULATION PARAMETERS

Fig. 4. MSIE performance comparisons of the proposed method (Interpolation) and prediction method (Extrapolation) with different velocities.

10

Parameters Sampling frequency, fs Transmission bandwidth, FFT size, M DFT size, N Cyclic Prex size Modulation type Carrier frequency

3, 84.106 Hz 2, 5M Hz 256 144 64 QP SK 2Ghz

10

BER

10

IV. S IMULATION R ESULTS We consider the generic frame structure, constant amplitude zero autocorrelation (CAZAC) pilot sequences, and extended cyclic prex size for LTE uplink [12]. As shown in Fig. 1, frames have 20 slots, and each slot has 6 symbols. 4th symbol in each slot is a pilot symbol, and the rest are data symbols. Simulation environments are shown in Table I. In each simulation iteration, one frame (100 data symbols) is transmitted. We consider a three-tap Rayleigh channel. It has a normal2 ized exponentially decaying power delay prole l h(m,l) = 1 1 and path delays = [0, 1, 2] fs . We consider an MMSE equalizer for frequency domain equalization. In Figs. 4 and 5, Extrapolation denotes the algorithm which is proposed in [5] and Interpolation denotes our proposed algorithm. Fig. 4 shows the MSIE comparisons and Fig. 5 shows the BER comparisons of the proposed algorithm and the existing algorithms at the relative velocities, v = 60km/h, 120km/h, respectively. V. C ONCLUSION Future wireless communication systems such as LTE aim at very high data rates at high speeds. However, many of these systems have an OFDM based physical layer, and hence, they are very sensitive to ICI. In this paper, we propose a channel estimation method for wireless systems that transmit only block-type pilots (training symbols). In this method, adaptive

10

10

Extrapolation v=60 km/h Extrapolation v=120 km/h Interpolation v=60 km/h Interpolation v=120 km/h

0 dB

5 dB

10 dB

15 dB SNR

20 dB

25 dB

30 dB

35 dB

Fig. 5. BER performance comparisons of the proposed method (Interpolation) and prediction method (Extrapolation) with different velocities.

order polynomial tting is applied to channel estimates in consecutive slots in order to estimate the channel taps for the data symbols between the pilot symbols. The proposed method is shown to improve the BER performance of LTE systems considerably, especially in rapidly-varying channels, via the simulation results provided. ACKNOWLEDGMENT The authors would like to thank WCSP group members at USF for their insightful comments and helpful discussions[]. R EFERENCES
[1] 3GPP, TR 25.814. Physical Layer Aspects for Evolved UTRA. [Online]. Available: www.3gpp.org [2] H. G. Myung, J. Lim, and D. J. Goodman, Single carrier FDMA for uplink wireless transmission, IEEE Vehicular Technology Magazine, vol. 1, no. 3, pp. 3038, Sept. 2006.

This full text paper was peer reviewed at the direction of IEEE Communications Society subject matter experts for publication in the WCNC 2008 proceedings.

[3] M. Russell and G. Stuber, Interchannel interference analysis of OFDM in a mobile environment, Vehicular Technology Conference, 1995 IEEE 45th, vol. 2, 1995. [4] Y. Mosto and D. Cox, ICI Mitigation for Pilot-Aided OFDM Mobile Systems, Wireless Communications, IEEE Transactions on, vol. 4, no. 2, pp. 765774, 2005. [5] K. Han, S. Lee, J. Lim, and K. Sung, Channel estimation for OFDM with fast fading channels by modied Kalman lter, Consumer Electronics, IEEE Transactions on, vol. 50, no. 2, pp. 443449, 2004. [6] W. Jakes and D. Cox, Microwave Mobile Communications. Wiley-IEEE Press, 1994. [7] L. Davis, I. Collings, and R. Evans, Coupled estimators for equalization of fast-fading mobile channels, Communications, IEEE Transactions on, vol. 46, no. 10, pp. 12621265, 1998. [8] M. Tsatsanis, G. Giannakis, and G. Zhou, Estimation and equalization of fading channels with random coefcients, Signal Processing, vol. 53, no. 2-3, pp. 211229, 1996. [9] S. Haykin, Adaptive lter theory, Prentice-Hall Information And System Sciences Series, p. 989, 1996. [10] B. Porat, Digital processing of random signals: theory and methods, pp. 152181, 1994. [11] N. Draper and H. Smith, Applied Regression Analysis. New York, 1967. [12] 3GPP, TS 36.211. Physical Channels and Modulation. [Online]. Available: www.3gpp.org