Intercarrier interference in MIMO OFDM

TLDR: This paper develops a model for multicarrier transmission over time-varying channels and focuses particularly on multiple-input multiple output (MIMO) orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM), and proposes a time-domain approach to channel estimation.

Abstract: In this paper, we examine multicarrier transmission over time-varying channels. We first develop a model for such a transmission scheme and focus particularly on multiple-input multiple output (MIMO) orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM). Using this method, we analyze the impact of time variation within a transmission block (time variation could arise both from Doppler spread of the channel and from synchronization errors). To mitigate the effects of such time variations, we propose a time-domain approach. We design ICI-mitigating block linear filters, and we examine how they are modified in the context of space-time block-coded transmissions. Our approach reduces to the familiar single-tap frequency-domain equalizer when the channel is block time invariant. Channel estimation in rapidly time-varying scenarios becomes critical, and we propose a scheme for estimating channel parameters varying within a transmission block. Along with the channel estimation scheme, we also examine the issue of pilot tone placement and show that in time-varying channels, it may be better to group pilot tones together into clumps that are equispaced onto the FFT grid; this placement technique is in contrast to the common wisdom for time-invariant channels. Finally, we provide numerical results illustrating the performance of these schemes, both for uncoded and space-time block-coded systems.