Semi-Blind SIMO Flat-Fading Channel Estimation in Unknown Spatially Correlated Noise Using the EM Algorithm.

We present a maximum likelihood (ML) method for semi-blind estimation of single-input multi-output (SIMO) flat-fading channels in spatially correlated noise having unknown covariance. An expectation–maximization (EM) algorithm is utilized to compute the ML estimates of the channel and spatial noise covariance. We derive the Cramér–Rao bound (CRB) matrix for the unknown parameters and present a symbol detector that utilizes the EM channel estimates. Numerical simulations demonstrate the performance of the proposed method.