Joint data and Kalman estimation of fading channel using a generalized Viterbi algorithm

This paper presents a method of sequence estimation using joint data and channel estimation for the frequency selective Rayleigh fading channel. To detect the transmitted data sequence, a generalized Viterbi algorithm is employed in which each trellis branch metric is computed based on an estimation of the channel impulse response. The information from the survivor path estimator is passed to the next branch for the next channel estimate. A linear model is used for the fading channel. An ARMA representation for the channel is derived, making it possible to employ the Kalman filter as the best estimator for the impulse response of the channel. For IS-54 formatted data transmission the results obtained with the Kalman filter are shown to be superior to those of other existing methods