Blind estimation of channel BERs in a multi-receiver network

In wireless communications, it is often desirable to merge bit decisions from multiple receivers to improve overall link performance. It is well known that in order to fuse bit decisions optimally from a network of receivers, precise knowledge of receiver bit error rates (BERs) is needed. This information, however, is rarely available in practice. We present an iterative procedure for blindly estimating receiver BERs to enable near optimal blind fusion of bit decisions in a multi-receiver network. We show that the solution of the estimation problem is a structured eigenvalue task and propose a modified power method procedure to perform it. We prove that the desired solution is a stable point of the algorithm and the algorithm is locally stable. Furthermore, we show, via simulations, that the technique results in excellent performance in nearly all practical operating scenarios.