SYSTEM FOR NEAR OPTIMAL JOINT CHANNEL ESTIMATION AND DATA DETECTION FOR COFDM SYSTEMS

Joint channel estimation and maximum likelihood decoding method for Coded Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (COFDM) systems are presented. Using this method in conjunction with convolutional coding, robust and nearly optimal coherent detection can be achieved in rapid dispersive fading channels. Significant performance gain in packet data throughput is realized in a system with aggressive frequency reuse. A system for estimating channel characteristics in a multicarrier transmission system comprising means for receiving a multicarrier signal, means for applying Fast Fourier transformations to the multicarrier signal, means for estimating channel characteristics of a multicarrier channel over which the multicarrier signal was transmitted using iterative processing and means for decoding the transformed multicarrier signal is presented.