Improved robustness for channel estimation without pilots for DVB-T2

As most state-of-the-art terrestrial transmissions standards, DVB-T2 uses orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) as modulation scheme. For performing channel estimation and equalization normally so-called frequency domain pilots are employed. As pilots are known information to the receiver, they do not carry any information and are thus overhead. Therefore, DVB-T2 also allows for a mode with nearly no frequency domain pilots, whereby the channel estimation is based on the data itself. This paper shows the high performance and throughput benefits of this pilot-free transmission and blind channel estimation technique while proposing an optimized algorithm.