A Pilot-Based Integration Method of Ranging and LS Channel Estimation for OFDM Systems

Abstract

In the design of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) communication systems, orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) is a commonly used communication technology. An efficient channel estimation and equalization algorithm is required to recover the amplitude, phase, and frequency of the signal in OFDM systems. At present, the more precise channel estimation method is based on the pilot. However, its spectrum utilization is relatively low. Therefore, this paper presents the design of a new pilot based on the LS channel estimation, which extends the role of the traditional pilot and improves the utilization of the spectrum. In addition to the channel estimation and equalization, the new pilot can also be utilized for ranging. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme can achieve both channel estimation and communication ranging functions by using the new pilot, and it outperforms the conventional method in channel estimation performance. The proposed method can complete ranging when the bit error rate (BER) is above 0 dB. Moreover, compared with the traditional channel estimation, it reduces the requirement for SNR by about 1 dB under the same BER.