Joint Channel Estimation Methods in Carrier Aggregation OFDM Systems

In this paper, we investigate channel estimation methods in carrier aggregation (CA) orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems. Carrier aggregation (CA) is one of the most distinct features of 4G that allows operators to deploy a system with larger bandwidth by aggregating several smaller contiguous or non-contiguous carriers. By taking advantage of the channel correlation that presents among different carrier components (CC) accessing the same physical link, new approaches are developed and proposed from pilot-assisted, blind, and semi-blind channel estimation. Simulation results show that the proposed channel estimation methods with combining data from different bands outperform methods that perform channel estimation in individual bands.