Blind channel estimation for single carrier block transmission systems with frequency domain equalization

We propose a blind channel estimation method for single carrier block transmission systems with frequency domain equalization. The method uses periodic precoding on the source signal before transmission. The estimation of the channel impulse response vector consists of two steps: (1) obtain the channel product matrix by solving a group of decoupled linear equations, and (2) obtain the channel impulse response vector by computing the maximal eigenvalue and the associated eigenvector of a Hermitian matrix formed from the channel product matrix. The identifiability condition is very simple. The design of the precoding sequence which minimizes the noise effect and numerical error in covariance matrix estimation is proposed. Simulations are used to demonstrate the performance of the method.