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Adaptive Channel Estimation using Cyclic Prefix

for Single Carrier Wireless System with FDE
CONFERENCE PAPER MARCH 2008
DOI: 10.1109/ICACT.2008.4493942 Source: IEEE Xplore

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Adaptive Channel Estimation using Cyclic Prefix

for Single Carrier Wireless System with FDE
Wahyul Amien SYAFEI , Kunitoshi NISHIJO , Yuhei NAGAO , Masayuki KUROSAKI and Hiroshi OCHI
Department

of Computer Science and Electronics

Kyushu Institute of Technology, Iizuka Campus, Kawazu 680-4, Iizuka, Japan 820-8502
Email: (wasyafei,nishijo,nagao,kurosaki,ochi) @dsp.cse.kyutech.ac.jp
Radrix.co.ltd. Email: support@radrix.com

Abstract
It has been verified recently that single carrier cyclic prefixed
(SC-CP) with frequency domain equalizer (FDE) is a promising
system for mobile communication and robust channel estimation
is needed to build the equalizers weight. Conventional SC-CP
wireless sytem uses training sequences that put in every packet
to get the channel information. This increases the overhead of
the system. Here we propose a new channel estimation technique by employing cyclic prefix (CP) to maintain both system
performance and throughput for this SC wireless system, with
300 kHz bandwidth and 1.6 Mbps throughput. The CP, which is
inserted between blocked data to avoid inter-block interference
(IBI), can be viewed as a source of channel information. If we can
estimate the transmitted CP by conventional way, we can continue
to estimate the channel adaptively. The simulation results show
that the proposed channel estimation technique can maintain
the system performance and gives 14,9 % higher throughput
compared with the conventional one when the number of packet
is increased.
Index Termschannel estimation, cyclic prefix, frequency
domain equalization, single carrier, wireless.

I. I
Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) has
received a lot of attention. By implementing Inverse Fast
Fourier Transform (IFFT) at the transmitter and FFT at the
receiver, OFDM converts an inter-symbol interference (ISI)
channel into parallel ISI-free subchannels with gains equal to
the channel frequency response (CFR) values on the FFT grid.
At the receiver, each subchannel can be easily equalized by
a single-tap equalizer using scalar division. To eliminate IBI
between successive IFFT processed blocks, a CP of length no
less than the CIR order is inserted per transmitted block, and
discarded at the receiver. In addition to IBI suppression, the
CP also converts the linear channel convolution into circular
convolution, which facilitates diagonalization of the associated
channel matrix and lead to get the equalizer weight easily.
On the other side, an OFDM signal consists of N sinusoidal
waves, so a peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) becomes
higher as N is increased [1], [2]. It also suers from intercarrier interference (ICI) due to frequency oset between
transmitter and receiver and Doppler shift. All of these drawbacks come from the IFFT at the transmitter. [3], [4].
It also has been verified that carefully designed linear
precoding OFDM (LP-OFDM) is more eective in dealing
with frequency-selectivity. One very good linear precoder,

ISBN 978-89-5519-136-3

actually annihilates the IFFT at the transmitter, and lends itself

to a single-carrier (SC) whether it is cyclic prefixed (SC-CP)
or zero-padded (SC-ZP) [5]. This lead to simpler transmitter
and better performance compared to OFDM.[4], [6], [7].
Correct channel estimation is very important to the implementation of any communication system. In most system,
a known training sequence is sent by the transmitter and
a training algorithm is performed by the receiver on the
observed channel output and the known input to estimate
the channel. The determinictics least square (DLS) channel
identification algorithm is such a simple and widely used
training approach. However it is not suited for time variant
(TV) channel. In practice, we either assume that the channel
is time invariant (TIV) and use the initial training to get
CIR information or periodically sent this training sequence to
track the channel variation. These solutions obviously yield in
performance loss or decreasing the throughput. Other solution
was proposed in [8], using CP to adaptively estimate the
channel in Multicarrier modulation system. The algorithm can
track the channel variation and the performance is comparable
to system with retraining. However this scheme employs real
value of the transmitted time-domain signal by using IFFT
size twice bigger than data size.
In this paper we propose adaptive channel estimation
employing CP in SC modulation with frequency domain
equalization (FDE) to maintain both system performance and
throughput. CP brings more channel information than Pilot
symbols and CP size is shorter than training sequence that
usually occupies one block of data. We let the transmitted
time-domain signal stays in complex value and use the same
size of FFT and the data block. The paper is organized as
follows. In Section II we explain the SC-CP with FDE system,
obervation on CP, the proposed system and adaptive channel
estimation technique using CP. Section III deals with the
comparation between the proposed system with conventional
and ideal system shown by simulation. Finally, We write some
conclusion in Section IV.
II. T P A C E T
Notation: Upper-case letters denote frequency domain signals; Lower-case letters denote time domain signals; Bold
letters denote matrices; ()T and ()H denote transpose and
Hermitian matrix; [.]i,, j denotes the (i, j)-th entry of a matrix;

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Feb. 17-20, 2008 ICACT 2008

C-SC-CP Transmitter
Data
Generator

Scrambler
CRC-32

Convolutional
Encoder

C-SC-CP with FDE Receiver

Puncturer

Deinterleaver

Gray
Demapper

Interleaver

Depuncturer

Viterbi
Decoder

De-scrambler
CRC-32

Data Sink

AWGN

Pilot
Remove

Phase
Tracker

IFFT

Frequency
Domain
Equalizer

FFT

C.P.
Remove

S/P

Channel

P/S

C.P.
Addition

Pilot
Insertion

Gray
Mapper

S/P

P/S

Fig. 1.

yn 1,k

X n 1,k

Yn 1,k

F.D.E.

Y0,k

X 1, k

x n 1,k

IFFT

x1,k

X 0, k

Quantizer

x0,k

H n 1, k 1 H 0, k 1

S/P

FFT

yn 1,k 1

Estimator

Received Cyclic Prefix

Fig. 2.

F y(k) = F h x(k) + F w(k)

xn 1,k 1

(3)

by considering Eq.2, we obtain

Channel

yn v ,k 1

N1

where DH = diag[H(e j0 ) H(e j2 N H(e j2 N ))] is a N N

diagonal matrix with its diagonal entries are CFR which can
be obtained by Fh.
The FFT output of Eq.1 is

y0 , k

One-tap

The transceiver of SC-CP system with FDE

Y1,k

FFT

y1,k

Channel
Estimator

xn v ,k 1
Estimated Cyclic Prefix

F y(k) = DH F x(k) + F w(k)

(4)

Y(k) = DH X(k) + W(k)

(5)

or

The proposed adaptive channel estimator

0i, j denotes zero matrix with size defined by index (i j) ;

diag(x) is a diagonal matrix with x on its diagonal.

Zero forcing (ZF) FDE is done by multiplying the FFT

output above with the inverse of DH .

X(k)

A. SC-CP with FDE System

SC-CP as one kind of LP-OFDM eliminates the need of
IFFT at the transmitter. Combining with frequency domain
equalizer (FDE) at the receiver, make it gives better performance than OFDM, especially under mobile environment.[5],
[9], [10], [11]. Figure 1 shows the transceiver of conventional
SC-CP with FDE system. In our proposed system, we enhance
the dashed-line bracketed part to build the adaptive channel
estimation by employing CP, as illustrated in Fig. 2.
If the lenght of CP (v) is equal to or greater than the length
of channel impulse response (CIR) (l), i.e.v l, we obtain the
received signal after removing the CP as:

= D1
H Y(k)
= X(k) + D1
H W(k)

(6)

We get the estimated data after IFFT as

x (k)

=
=

FH X(k)
x(k) + D1
H w(k)

(7)

Here we can see that FDE can suppres channel eect from the
received data. In the absence of noise, the transmitted data is
recovered perfectly.
In each packet, conventional system uses 3 blocks of training sequence in the preamble for channel estimation purpose
followed by 20 blocks of the data, as illustrated in Fig.3.
B. Observation on Cyclic Prefix

y(k) = h x(k) + w(k)

(1)

where x(k) = [x0,k , x1,k , , xn1,k ]T is transmitted data block,

w(k) = [w0,k , w1,k , , wn1,k ]T is aditive white Gaussian noise
(AWGN), and h is a N N circulant matrix with first column
is [h 01,nl ]T .
From circulant matrix properties, we can diagonalize such
matrix by pre and post-mulitplication with F and FH , where
F is a N N FFT matrix which its (n, k)-th entry is defined
1
by [F]n,k = N 2 exp( j2nk/N), as:
F h FH = DH

ISBN 978-89-5519-136-3

(2)

The CFR information in Eq. 2 is usually obtained by training process. For a time invariant channel, only initial training is
needed. However, for a time varying channel, retraining must
be done periodically to keep on with the channel variations,
otherwise, the system performance degrades. Obviously, such
a scheme increases the overhead of the system. In this section
we see that by using cyclic prefix, retraining is not necessary to track the channel variations. Lets first consider the
received prefix part ycp (k) which is originally discarded. The
relationship between ycp (k) and the transmitted prefix xcp (k)
is
(8)
ycp (k) = Tk h + wcp (k)

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Feb. 17-20, 2008 ICACT 2008

where Tk is a fat Toeplitz matrix with the lower triangle is

composed by transmitted CP [xcp (k)]T and the upper triangle
is composed by the previous transmitted CP which is actually
the last v part of the previous symbol [xcp (k 1)]T , or

xp,k xm1,k1 xmp,k1

.
..
..
..
..
.
.
.

Tk =
(9)
.
.

..
..

x1,k

xp,k xm1,k1
and wcp (k) = [wp,k w1,k ]T is the AWGN correspondence
to the CP. Note: xmp,k1 = xp,k1 .
Hence
if
all
the
prefix
parts
concatenate
=
together to form a pair of sequences {xcp }
{ xp,k1 x1,k1 xp,k x1,k } and
{ycp } = { yp,k1 y1,k1 yp,k y1,k } the
relationship between these two satisfies
ycp = xcp h + wcp

(10)

Eq.10 shows that if we send {xcp } to the channel as the

training sequence, the channel output is exactly {ycp }. We can
use this training sequences to estimate the channel if we can
recover the transmitted CP {xcp } correctly.

Preamble
3 SC symbols
Preamble B
40 samples
37.5 us

DATA 1
40 samples

112.5 us

DATA 20
40 samples

20 x 37.5 us = 750 us

37.5 us

Fig. 3.

Packet Format

where
(k) = 1 (k 1) + 2

p


xl (k) xlH (k)

(13)

l=1

is the approximation of the correlation matrix of the transmitted CP, while

z(k) = 1 z(k 1) + 2

p


xl (k) yl (k)

(14)

l=1

is the approximation of the cross-correlation vector between

the transmitted CP and the received CP, which is formed
as xl (k) = [xl,k x1,k xv,k1 xv+l,k1 ]T and yl (k) =
[yl,k y1,k yv,k1 yv+l,k1 ]T , respectively, for l =
v, v 1, , 1. While 1 and 2 are forgetting factors for
the data between blocks and within same block, usually we
use 2 = 1 and 1 < 1. The channel estimation value is updated
every k time.
III. S R

Our proposed adaptive channel estimator as shown in Fig. 2

has 3 dierent parts compared to conventional one. They are
Quantizer, time domain channel estimator and FFT.
1) Time Domain Channel Estimator: Quantizer is used to
to reduce the probability of error propagation by quantizing
(round up) the estimated data after IFFT x (k) to the original
Quadrature Amplitudo Modulation (QAM) symbol value. For
channel estimation purpose we just take the last v samples of
Quantizer output [ xnv,k xn1,k ] as the estimated CP, (note
that xnv,k = xv,k and xn1,k = x1,k ). After arranging these
estimated CP to Eq. 9 we can estimate the channel in time
domain as

(11)
h(k)
= T1
k ycp (k)
By the properties of Toeplitz matrix we can obtain the T1 (k)
by using T (k), where [] is the pseudo invers matrix.
Since we do the channel estimation in time domain while the
equalization is in frequency domain, we need FFT to convert
the estimated CIR of Eq.11 to CFR value then build the zero
forcing equalizer coecient DH .
2) Adaptive Channel Estimation: To make this channel
estimator adaptif we use the recursive least-square (RLS)
algorithm to get the channel estimation value from Eq.10 due
to its good tracking property [12]. Noticing that the data in Eq.
1 and 8 arrive block by block, we use a block RLS method
which updates the channel estimation value by blocks. The
estimated channel at time k is

ISBN 978-89-5519-136-3

Preamble C2
40 samples

862.5 us

C. The Proposed System

h(k)
= 1 (k) z(k)

Preamble C1
40 samples

DATA
20 SC symbols

(12)

Perfect synchronization is assummed. The main parameters

of the system specification and simulation are shown in Table
I and Table II.
A. System Performance
The performance comparation between the ideal, the conventional and the proposed system, in a static multipath channel is shown in Fig.4. Ideal system means that the information
of CIR already provided at the receiver while conventional
system uses retraining sequence in every packet i.e. preamble,
to estimate the CIR. We can see that on low SNR conventional
system shows good performance. However after 23 dB of
SNR, the proposed system gives better performance compared
to the conventional one as the SNR is increased.
B. System Throughput
We can calculate the throughput for the conventional system
from Table I and II as
ND NBPS C R
(15)
Throughputmax =
TS Y M
30 4 12
=
37.5 106
= 1.6Mbps
where NBPS C is number of coded bit which is defined by
modulation type. Since we use 16-QAM, NBPS C = 4.
By considering the non-data parts in the preamble, we
obtain the data rate becomes
20
1.6 Mbps = 1.3913 Mbps
(16)
Throughputcon =
23

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Feb. 17-20, 2008 ICACT 2008

TABLE I
S P

Ideal
Retraining
Adaptive

SC
265.85
300
30
2
1.066
32
30
7.5
37.5

10

10
bit error rate

PARAMETER
Frequency Carrier [MHz]
Bandwidth [kHz]
Number of data (ND )
Number of pilot
FFT sampling [MHz]
FFT Point
FFT period (T FFT ) [s]
CP length (TGI ) [s]
Symbol period (T S Y M ) [s]

10

10

10

TABLE II
S P
Modulation
Coding rate (R)
Multipath CIR
Delay spread [s]
Number of transmitted packet (P)

16 QAM
1/2
[1.0 0.813 0.676 0.55 0.447 0.372]
5
5000

10

Fig. 4.

Throughput (Mbps)

20 + 20 (P 1)
1.6 Mbps
23 + 20 (P 1)

(17)

where P is the number of transmitted packet. As P is increased

we almost attain the maximum data rate. In this simulation we
send 5000 packets and show the throughput for the first 200
transmitted packets in Fig. 5. Furthermore, certainly the system
throughput can be increased by using higher modulation, such
as 64 QAM.

ISBN 978-89-5519-136-3

25

30

Bit error rate comparation in multipath channel

1.55

Maximum
Data rate

1.50

Proposed
System

1.45
Retraining
System

1.35

[1] D Falconer, S. L. Ariyavisitakul, A. Benyamin-Seeyar, and B. Eidson,

Frequency Domain Equalization for Single-Carrier Broadband Wireless
Systems, IEEE Communications Magazine, Vol. 40, No. 4, pp. 58-66,
2002.
[2] X. Huang, J. Lu, and J. Zheng, Generalized Circular Transform for
OFDM Transmission,
in Proc. Vehicular Technology Conf., vol.1,
pp.474-478, 2004 .
[3] S. Ohno, Performance of Single-Carrier Block Transmission Over Multipath Fading Fading Channels With Linear Equalization,
IEEE
Transactions on Signal Processing. Vol.54, No.10, pp. 3678-3687, October
2006.
[4] Z. Wang, X. Ma, and G.B. Giannakis, OFDM or Single Carrier Block
Transmission?, IEEE Transactions on Communications, Vol.52, No.3,
pp. 380-394, March 2004.
[5] Z. Wang and G.B. Giannakis, Linearly Precoded or Coded OFDM
Against Wireless Channel Fades?,
in Proc. of IEEE Workshop on
Signal Proc. Adnavces in Wireless Comm. Taoyuan, Taiwan, pp. 267270, March 20-23, 2001.

20

1.40

IV. C
In this paper, we have presented an adaptive channel estimation technique using cyclic prefix for SC wireless system
with FDE. The proposed system can maintain the system
performance and gives 14.9 % higher throughput as the
number of transmitted packet is increased. For future work we
will enhanced the algorithm and examine the proposed system
under dynamic channel then use higher modulation such as 64
QAM to achieve higher throughput.

15
SNR (dB)

1.60

After applying the adaptive channel estimator that employs

CP, we annhilate the need of training sequences start from the
second transmitted packet and get the higher data rate as
Throughput pro =

10

Fig. 5.

50
100
150
Number of Transmitted Packet (P)

200

Throughput comparation for the first 200 of P

[6] Z. Wang, X. Ma, and G.B. Giannakis, Optimality of Single Carrier

Zero-Padded Block Transmission?, in Proc. Wireless Communications
Networking Conf. Orlando, Florida, Vol.2, pp. 660-664, March 17-21,
2002.
[7] Y. P. Lin and S.M. Phoong, BER Minimized OFDM Systems with Channel
Independent Precoders,
IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing,
Vol.51, No.9, pp. 2369-2380, September 2003.
[8] X. Wang and K. J. Ray Liu Adaptive Channel Estimation Using Cyclic
Prefix in Multicarrier Modulation System,
IEEE Communications
Letters Vol. 3, No. 10, October 1999. pp. 291-293.
[9] Wahyul Amien Syafei, Kunitoshi Nishijo, Yuhei Nagao, Masayuki
Kurosaki, and Hiroshi Ochi. Performance Verification between OFDM
and SC-FDE For Narrowband Mobile Communication System, IEICE
Society Conference Procedings, Tottori, Japan, September 12, 2007.
[10] A. Czylwik, Comparison between Adaptive OFDM and Single Carrier
Modulation with Frequency Domain Equalization,
in Proc. Vehicular
Technology Conf., vol. 2, Phoenix, AZ, pp. 865-869, 1997.
[11] Z. Wang and G.B. Giannakis, Wireless Multicarrier Communications,
where Fourier Meets Shannon,
IEEE Signal Processing Magazine.
vol.47, no.3, pp. 29-48, May 2000.
[12] S. Haykin, Adaptive Filter Theory, Prentice Hall, Englewood Clis,
New Jersey, 4th Edition, 2000.

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