Joint Frequency-Domain Equalization and Channel Estimation Using Superimposed Pilots

SC modulations (single-carrier) with FDE (frequency-domain equalization) are promising candidates for future broadband wireless systems. These modulations allow excellent performances in severely time-dispersive channels, provided that accurate channel estimates are available at the receiver. For this purpose, pilot symbols and/or training sequences are usually multiplexed with data symbols. Since this leads to overhead and some spectral degradation, the use of superimposed pilots (i.e., pilots added to data) was recently proposed. In this paper we consider SC-FDE systems where the channel estimation is based on superimposed pilots. Since the interference levels between data and pilots might be very high, we propose an iterative receiver with joint equalization and channel estimation. Our performance results show that the use of superimposed pilots, combined with the proposed receiver, allows performances close to the case with perfect channel estimation, even for severely time-dispersive channels.