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A Novel SNR Estimation Algorithm for OFDM

Huilin Xu, Guo Wei and Jinkang Zhu


Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Science University of Science and Technology of China Hefei, Anhui, 230027, P.R.China Email: xuhuilin@mail.ustc.edu.cn

Abstract In this paper, we extend the traditional SNR estimation algorithms dened in complex AGWN channel to time variant linear channel and present a new SNR estimation algorithm for OFDM system. We compare our algorithm with two momentbased algorithms. Simulation results show that the new algorithm performs better in large doppler frequency environments and is insensitive to the statistical characteristics of the channel.

I. I NTRODUCTION Several SNR estimation techniques have been proposed for the AWGN channel[1][2][5]. However, in mobile environments, both the amplitude and phase of the channel are time variant. The SNR estimation in such an environment is the focus of this paper. When extended to time variant linear channels, maximum likelihood (ML) algorithm and minimum mean square error (MMSE) algorithm need channel estimates, while the momentbased estimators keep blind. The traditional moment-based algorithm, M2 M4 algorithm, uses the second and fourth order autocorrelation of the received signals. We develop a new moment-based SNR estimation algorithm which uses both the second order autocorrelation and the second order crosscorrelation of the received signals. Compared with the M2 M4 algorithm, our new method has lower order and wider scope of application. As participants of the China FuTURE project, we aim at the development of OFDM-based wireless communication systems. The applications of SNR estimator in our system include adaptive subcarrier allocation and higher layer handover. Our algorithm uses the comb-type pilot arrangement which is originally designed for channel estimation and equalization. In fast fading environments, channel estimation with combtype pilot arrangement is the most effective way to track the time-variant channel. Our algorithm rst derives SNR estimate over each pilot subcarrier. Then the estimates on all pilot subcarriers are averaged to approximate the overall SNR in the whole frequency band. Simulation results demonstrate that this approximation is feasible in our OFDM system. Further more, this algorithm is insensitive to doppler frequency and the channels statistical characteristics. II. S YSTEM M ODEL Transmitter adopts comb-type pilot arrangement which is originally provided for channel estimation and equalization in fast fading environments. We assume that pilot signals are sent in every OFDM symbol period, which corresponds to the worst

condition that variation of channel factor is observable in two OFDM symbol periods. For other conditions that channel is slower varying, pilot signal sequence sent at regular intervals is enough. In the jth symbol period, the ith pilot subcarrier is modulated with a complex value a(i, j). We also assume the same pilot signal is sent on the same pilot subcarrier in different OFDM symbol periods, which means a(i, j) = a(i, l) for any i,j and l. Then the complex baseband system model for the ith pilot subcarrier can be formulated as y(i, j) = Sh(i, j)a(i, j) + N n(i, j) (1)

where n(i, j) is complex, zero-mean AGWN and h(i, j) is the complex channel factor. For convenience, the variance of h(i, j), n(i, j) and a(i, j) is normalized to unity. S is a signal power scale factor, and N is a noise power scale factor. Equation (1) reveals the essence of OFDM: it converts the multi-path channel into a set of parallel time-variant linear channels. In the following sections, we will derive the SNR estimate for each specic pilot subcarrier. Then these values are averaged over all pilot subcarriers to approximate the overall SNR. III. E XTENSION OF T RADITIONAL A LGORITHMS A. ML and MMSE Algorithms A detailed derivation of the ML SNR estimator is given in [1], then Pauluzzi extended it to M ary PSK signals in complex AGWN channel. We extend the application of the ML SNR estimator in time variant linear channel. The ML SNR estimate of the SNR M L for the ith subcarrier is derived from J samples of the received signal given by (1): M L = SM L /NM L 1 SM L = J 2 Re{y(i, j)h (i, j)a (i, j)} (3) (2)

J1 j=0

1 NM L = J

J1 j=0

|y(i, j)|2 SM L

(4)

0-7803-8887-9/05/$20.00 (c)2005 IEEE

where SM L and NM L are the ML estimates of the signal and noise power respectively, Re denotes the real part of a complex quantity, and h(i, j) is the estimate of h(i, j). The MMSE SNR estimator is dened as[6]: M M SE = SM M SE /NM M SE SM M SE 1 = J
J1 j=0

0.5

(5)
0

|y(i, j)| NM M SE
2

(6)
0.5 0

1 NM M SE = J

J1 j=0

|y(i, j) h(i, j)a(i, j)|2

10

15

20

25

30

(7)
Fig. 1. Zeroth order Bessel function of the rst kind

where SM M SE and NM M SE are the MMSE estimates of the signal power and noise power. The ML and MMSE algorithms apply to any channel environment if transmitter know the channel estimates. However, it also means that performance of SNR estimator is dependent on the chosen channel estimation algorithm. For example, for LS channel estimation algorithm, both (4) and (7) will be zero, and then SNR can not be estimated. B. M2 M4 Algorithm The moment-based SNR estimators keep blind when extended to time variant linear channel. [5] derived the secondand fourth-order moments (M2 M4 ) estimator for real signals in real AGWN channel, and [2] extended the derivation provided in [5] for complex channels. We extend the application of the M2 M4 algorithm to time variant liner channel for OFDM. Let M2 and M4 denote the second order and fourth order moments for the received signal on the ith pilot subcarrier M2 = E{y(i, j)y (i, j)} M4 = E{[y(i, j)y (i, j)] } Similar to [2], we get M2 = S + N M4 = S 2 Ka Kh + 4SN + N 2 Kn (10) (11)
2

C. Boumards Algorithm In [4], Boumard derived a second-order moment-based SNR estimator for 2 2 MIMO OFDM system when the channel is slowly varying in both frequency and time domains. We derive its corresponding SISO version when keeping the presumption that the channel is slowly time-variant. That means h(i, j) approximately equals h(i, j + 1) and channel gain is invariant during two symbol periods. Then, under the precondition that the noise is zero-mean and the same pilot signal is sent on the same pilot subcarrier, we get the SNR estimator for the ith pilot subcarrier M 2 = SM 2 /NM 2 1 SM 2 = J
J1 j=0 J1 j=0

(12)

y(i, j)y (i, j + 1)

(13)

(8) (9)

1 NM 2 = J

|y(i, j)|2 SM 2

(14)

where Ka , Kh and Kn are the kurtosis of the signal a(i, j), the channel gain h(i, j), and the noise n(i, j), respectively. Solving equations (10) and (11), we obtain the estimates of signal and noise power, S and N , and then the estimate of SNR, S/N . For zero-mean AGWN and Rayleigh fading channel, Kn = 2 and Kh = 2. For M ary PSK signal, Ka = 1; then (10) and (11) degrade into M4 = 2M2 2 and have an innite number of solutions. Therefore, the M2 M4 algorithm does not apply to M ary PSK modulated signal in Rayleigh fading channel. Another factor limiting the application of M2 M4 estimator is that transmitter must know the precise value of Kh , i.e. the four order statistic of the channel.

Compared with the ML and MMSE estimator, Boumards algorithm needs no channel estimates, but only under the condition that channel is slowly time varying. When channel fading is faster, its performance degrades as doppler frequency increases. In the following section, based on Boumards algorithm, we develop a new second-order SNR estimation algorithm. It will give a more accurate estimate of the signal power S than (13) in fast fading environments. IV. D ERIVATION OF N EW A LGORITHM A. New Algorithm in Rayleigh Fading Channel We rst derive the algorithm in Rayleigh fading channel. The channel gain on the ith subcarrier is denoted as hG (i, j). Following the Jakess model[3], we get the time domain autocorrelation of hG (i, j) RG (l) = E{hG (i, j)h (i, l + j)} = J0 (2fd lT ) G (15)

where fd is channel doppler frequency, T is symbol duration, and J0 (.) is the zeroth order Bessel function of the rst kind. Note that the power of hG (i, j) has been normalized to unity. The series expansion of J0 (x) with the center x = 0 is x2 + O(x4 ) (16) 4 In practical application, fd is far smaller than symbol frequency 1/T , which is determined by the primary requirement of communication systems. Therefore, we can take the rst two terms in (16) and obtain the autocorrelation of the signal part of the received signal on the ith subcarrier J0 (x) = 1 RG (l) = E{hG (i, j)a(i, j)h (i, l + j)a (i, l + j)}S G = E{y(i, j)y (i, l + j)} l=0 A + Bl2 in (17), for l = 0, 1 and 2 RG (0) = SA RG (1)A + B RG (2)A + 4B Then we get the estimate of signal power S RG (1) RG (2) SG RG (1) + 3 RG (1) and RG (2) can be estimated with RG (l) = 1 J
J1 j=0

RR (l) = E{hR (i, j)h (i, l + j)} R 1 [K + J0 (2fd lT )] = 1+K

(24)

Similar to the derivation of equation (19)-(22), we can obtain the SNR estimate of the received signals in Ricean channel. R = SR /NR
J1 j=0

(25)

(17)

1 NR = J

y(i, j)y (i, j) SR

(26)

RR (1) RR (2) SR RR (1) + 3 (18) 1 J


J1 j=0

(27)

RR (l) =

y(i, j)y (i, l + j)

l = 1, 2

(28)

(19)

The estimator has the same form as that derived in Rayleigh fading channel. That means our new algorithm applies to both Rayleigh fading and Ricean channel environments. Lets look at the application of M2 M4 algorithm in this case. The kurtosis of the Ricean channel gain is KR = E|hR |4 K2 =2 2 }2 {E|hR | (1 + K)2 (29)

y(i, j)y (i, l + j)

l = 1, 2

(20)

where y(i, j) is the received signal which is expressed as (1). The estimates of noise power and SNR are respectively: 1 NG = J
J1 j=0

y(i, j)y (i, j) SG

(21) (22)

and KR decreases as the K-factor increases. Then in an environment that K is time varying, for example, affected by large-scale fading, when transmitter uses M2 M4 algorithm derived in Rayleigh channel, the SNR estimates could be unreliable. V. S IMULATION R ESULTS The performance of the new SNR estimator is compared with the M2 M4 algorithm and Boumards algorithm by computer simulation. The radio channels used for simulation include: (a) a 6-tap time variant Rayleigh fading channel with the root mean square (rms) delay spread of 27 samples; all paths are equally spaced in the maximum delay spread of 256 samples, and the relative power of each path decays exponentially; (b) a 2-tap Ricean channel with the rst tap is time invariant, and the ratio of the two power components is dened as the K-factor, K. The sample rate of our system is 20MHz with 2048 total subcarriers and 256 pilot subcarriers. The simulation time for distinct doppler frequency is 15 channel coherence time which is dened in [7]. The performance of these SNR estimators is evaluated in terms of the average SNR estimate over all pilot subcarriers.

G = SG /NG B. Ricean Channel

In Rayleigh fading channel, the channel gain hG is a zeromean complex Gauss value. While in many radio environments, the complex channel gain hR consists of a Rayleigh component hG plus a xed component. Then the time-varying envelope of channel gain has a Ricean distribution. The ratio of the xed and Rayleigh power components is dened as the K-factor, K. Let denote the phase of the xed component. Then, in the jth symbol period, channel gain on the ith pilot subcarrier can be expressed as hR (i, j) = 1 Kexp(j) + hG (i, j) 1+K

(23)

note that the power of hG and hR are normalized to unity. The autocorrelation of hR is

20 18

12 10 8

SNR estimates(dB)

16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 4 6 8 10 new algorithm, df = 100Hz new algorithm, df = 500Hz Boumards, df = 500Hz Boumards, df = 100Hz

SNR estimates(dB)

6 4 2 0 2 4 M2M4 algorithm, SNR = 10dB new algorithm, SNR = 10dB

12

14

16

18

20

SNR(dB)

6 10

K(dB)

Fig. 2.

Average SNR estimate as functions of SNR in channel (a)

Fig. 3.

Average SNR estimate as functions of K in channel (b)

A. New Algorithm vs. Boumards We compare the performances of the new algorithm and Boumards algorithm which is described by (12)-(14) in channel model (a). In Fig. 2, the average SNR estimates are plotted for different true channel SNR. The two upmost curves in Fig. 2 show that when channel doppler frequency (df) is small(100Hz), both the estimation results of Boumards algorithm and those of our new algorithm are reliable. When doppler frequency is 500Hz, Boumards SNR estimates deviates form true values seriously as the the SNR increases, while estimates of our algorithm still conform to the true values. For high SNR, there is a small estimation error between the estimate of our algorithm and the true SNR. This error comes from the ICI noise due to the loss of orthogonality of the subcarriers in time variant channels. B. New Algorithm vs. M2 M4 Algorithm Consider a transmitter that adopts 16QAM modulation. The SNR estimator derived in Rayleigh fading channel is expressed as 24 = M4 2M2 2 0.8M2 M4 2M2 2 (30)

K-factor, for the new algorithm has the same forms in both Rayleigh and Ricean channel environments. VI. C ONCLUSION In this paper, we propose a new moment-based SNR estimation algorithm for single antenna OFDM system. The algorithm is originally derived in Rayleigh fading channel. However both the theoretical analysis and the computer simulation show that the performance of new algorithm is not inuenced by the power of the xed channel component. The scope of application of our new algorithm is wider than that of the traditional M2 M4 algorithm. Although the new algorithm almost has the same complexity as the SISO version of Boumards algorithm, its performance is superior to Boumards especially in environments with a large channel doppler frequency. The application of Boumards algorithm needs the channel to be slow-varying in both time and frequency domain. If only keep the requirement that the channel is low frequency selectivity and combine the new SNR estimation algorithm with the frequency domain algorithm proposed in [8], it is possible for us to extend the new algorithm to MIMO OFDM. This possibility will be investigated in our future research. R EFERENCES
[1] R. M. Gagliardi and C. M. Thomas, PCM data reliability monitoring through estimation of signal-to-noise ratio, IEEE Trans. Commun., vol. COM-16, pp. 479-486, June 1968. [2] D.R.Pauluzzi, N.C.Beaulieu,A Comparison of SNR Estimation Techniques for the AWGN Channel, IEEE Trans. On Commun., vol.48.2000.pp.1681-1691. [3] W. C. Jakes, Mobile Microwave Communication. New York: Wiley,1974. [4] Boumard, S., Novel noise variance and SNR estimation algorithm for wireless MIMO OFDM systems, GLOBECOM 2003. IEEE, pp.1330 1334 vol.3. [5] R. Matzner and F. Engleberger, An SNR estimation algorithm using fourth-order moments, in Proc. IEEE Int. Symp. Information Theory, Trondheim, Norway, June 1994, pp. 119. [6] Steven M. Kay, Fundamentals of Statistical Signal Processing - Estimation. Publishing House of Electronics Industry, Beijing, 2003. [7] Theodore S. Rappaport, Wireless Communications Principles and Practice. Publishing House of Electronics Industry, Beijing, 1999. [8] Xu Huilin, Peng Jingbo, SNR Estimation Methods for OFDM, Communications Technology, vol. 150, no. 6, pp. 13-15, Nov. 2004.

As we have mentioned above, the derivation of equation (30) uses a fact that the kurtosis of the Rayleigh channel gain equals 2. However, if the channel gain consists both a Rayleigh fading component and a xed component, the kurtosis will decrease as the K-factor increases. Therefore, when there exits a xed channel component, the SNR estimates obtained with (30) must be unreliable. Fig. 3 shows this as the K-factor increases. Fig. 3 compares the performance of new algorithm and M2 M4 algorithm when true channel SNR equals 10dB in channel model (b). As we can see in Fig. 3, the M2 M4 SNR estimates fast deviate from the true values when the power of the xed component becomes comparable to the Rayleigh fading component. The upper curve in Fig. 3 demonstrates that the performance of our new algorithm is independent on

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