The Impact of Channel Estimation

Errors on Space-Time Block Codes

Presentation for Virginia Tech
Symposium on Wireless Personal
Communications

M. C. Valenti
D. A. Baker
Wireless Communications Research Lab
West Virginia University
Benefits of Space-Time
Block Codes
Space-time block coding utilizes multiple transmit
antennas to create spatial diversity.
This allows a system to have better performance in a
fading environment.
Benefits:
Good performance with minimal decoding complexity.
Can achieve maximum diversity gain equivalent to
space-time trellis codes.
Receivers that use only linear processing.
Diagram of Block STC
Transmission
X
1
X
2
0 T 2T
X
1
-X
2
*
X
2

X
1
*
0 T 2T
Ant 1
Ant 2
Data

STC encoder
Data
STC
encoder
Fading o
i

AWGN n
STC decoder
x
r
Modulation
Encoder matrix:
|
|
.
|

\
|

=
*
1
*
2
2 1
2
x x
x x
G
Wireless Channel Model:
Rayleigh Fading
The channel between the i
th
transmit antenna and
the receive antenna undergoes flat-fading:



We assume quasi-static fading:
Quasi-static means that the path gains from one transmit
antenna to the receive antenna is constant over a frame.
o u
i i i i i
X jY a j = + = exp{ }
Rayleigh
Uniform Gaussian
Block STC decoder
Each symbol in a block is decoded separately by
minimizing the metric


The decoder outputs the hard-decisions on the
data.
The more TXs and RXs the system has, the
better performance the system can achieve.


2
1 1

= =

l
t
n
i
i
t i t
c r o
Decoding Block STC
2
1 2
*
2 1 2
2
2 2 1 1 1
x x r x x r o o o o + +
(

+
(

=
|
|
.
|

\
|
=
*
2
1
2
1
*
1
*
2
2 1
*
2
1
q
q
o o
o o
x
x
r
r
r
2
1 1

= =

l
t
n
i
i
t i t
c r o
( ) ( )
2
2
2
2
2
1
2
2 1
*
2
*
2 1
2
1
2
2
2
1
2
1 2
*
2
*
1 1
1 1 x x r r x x r r + + + + + + o o o o o o o o
Since |x
1
|=|x
2
| (PSK), we can get:
2
1 2
*
2
*
1 1
x r r + o o
2
2 1
*
2
*
2 1
x r r o o
The received signals are:
In order to minimize
it is equivalent to minimize
By using:
*
2
c c c =
we have:
and
Simulation of STBC
Channel fading coefficients were modeled as
samples of Gaussian random variables with
variance 0.5 per dimension.
The channel was assumed to be static over the
length of a frame, and varies from frame to frame.
Noise was modeled as Gaussian with zero mean
and variance n/(2*SNR). Where n is the number of
transmit antennas.
STBC With Channel
Estimation Errors
The fading coefficient between the i
th
transmit
antenna and the receive antenna is given as
o u
i i i
a j = exp
l q

exp o u |
i i i i
a j = +
l q

exp o u
i i i i
K a j =
l q
A channel estimate with phase error is of the form
A channel estimate with gain error is of the form
QPSK With Perfect CSI
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
10
-6
10
-5
10
-4
10
-3
10
-2
10
-1
10
0
Received SNR
B
E
R
uncoded QPSK
STBC using QPSK
2 TX antennas
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
10
-2
10
-1
Phase error in channel 1
SNR fixed at 10 dB
Phase error in channel 2
B
E
R
Simulation Results:
Phase Errors @ Low SNR
The SNR at the receiver is
fixed at 10 dB.
This shows a rapid decline
in BER performance for
small errors in the phase
of either channel estimate.
Simulation Results:
Phase Errors @ Medium SNR
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
10
-4
10
-3
10
-2
10
-1
Phase error in channel 1
SNR fixed at 20 dB
Phase error in channel 2
B
E
R
The signal to noise ratio
(SNR) at the receiver is
fixed at 20dB
Even with the increased
SNR a rapid decline in
bit error rate
performance still
occurs.

0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
10
-5
10
-4
10
-3
10
-2
10
-1
Phase error in channel 1
SNR fixed at 25 dB
Phase error in chanel 2
B
E
R
Simulation Results:
Phase Errors @ High SNR
The signal to noise ratio
(SNR) at the receiver is
now fixed at 25dB
Increasing SNR only
results in a steeper
curve as the
performance is quickly
degraded.

0 5 10 15 20 25
10
-5
10
-4
10
-3
10
-2
10
-1
10
Simulation Results: Average
Phase Error Per Channel
0
10
1
Received SNR
B
E
R

avg. phase error/channel = 0.2 rad
avg. phase error/channel = 0.4 rad
avg. phase error/channel = 0.6 rad
avg. phase error/channel = 0.8 rad
As the average phase
error in each channel
approaches 0.5
radians, the
performance is
completely degraded
even with increasing
values of SNR at the
receiver.

0
0.5
1
1.5
0
0.5
1
1.5
10
-2
10
-1
Gain error in channel one
SNR fixed at 10dB
Gain error in channel two
B
E
R
Simulation Results: Gain Errors
The SNR is fixed at
10dB.
The curve has a valley-
like shape.
This shows that if the
error in both channel
estimates is roughly
equal, then only a small
performance penalty is
incurred.
However, if the errors in
each estimate are very
different, performance
can suffer.

Normalized Gain Error
Since the performance of the system is not adversely
affected by errors in the gain of the estimates if the estimates
are the same in each channel, the concept of normalized gain
error is introduced.


Normalized Gain Error =
K
K
1
2
Simulation Results: Normalized
Gain Error
SNR fixed at 10dB.
SNR fixed at 20dB.

10
-2
10
-1
10
0
10
1
10
2
10
-4
10
-3
10
-2
10
-1
SNR fixed at 20 dB
Normalized Gain error K1/K2
B
E
R

Simulation Results: Normalized
Gain Error
The performance loss
is negligible when the
normalized gain error
is unity.
When the difference
between the gain
errors in the two
channels is nearly
double the loss
approaches 7dB at a
BER of 10
-3
.
0 5 10 15 20 25
10
-5
10
-4
10
-3
10
-2
10
-1
10
0
Received SNR
B
E
R
normalized gain error = 0.067
normalized gain error = 0.6
normalized gain error = 1.0
Simulation Results: Combined
Gain and Phase Errors
The shape of the
curves remain
similar to the curves
generated when only
considering the
errors in the gain.
However, the curves
get flattened as the
average phase error
in each channel is
increased.
The phase errors are
obviously the
primary source of
performance loss.

10
-2
10
-1
10
0
10
1
10
2
10
-4
10
-3
10
-2
10
-1
10
0
10
1
SNR fixed at 20 dB
Normalized Gain error K1/K2
B
E
R
phase error/channel = 0.1 radians
phase error/channel = 0.2 radians
phase error/channel = 0.4 radians
phase error/channel = 0.6 radians

Pilot Sequence Estimation
A pilot sequence is a series of symbols that
are known to the receiver in advance.
By comparing what was transmitted with
what was received, the receiver can estimate
the effects of the channel.
However, since the AWGN noise samples at
the receiver are not known, the channel
estimates will be imperfect, or noisy.
STBC Estimation Scheme:
How It Works
If we have only one receive antenna then the
received signal at time t can be expressed as
follows:

r =
F
H
G
I
K
J
=

F
H
G
I
K
J
F
H
G
I
K
J
+
F
H
G
I
K
J
-
- -
-
r
r
s
s
n
n
1
2
1 2
2 1
1
2
1
2
ch ch
o o
o o
STBC Estimation Scheme:
How It Works
The received signal can also be expressed using a
matrix of transmitted signals instead of a matrix of
channel gains as shown in the following:
r
r S n
=
F
H
G
I
K
J
=

F
H
G
I
K
J
F
H
G
I
K
J
+
F
H
G
I
K
J
= +
- -
r
r
s s
s s
n
n
1
2
1 2
2 1
1
2
1
2
o
o
o
STBC Estimation Scheme:
How It Works
If the receiver knows the signals that were
transmitted then an estimate of the channel fades
can be derived from the received signal.

o
o
o
o
o
o
o
=
+

=
+

F
H
G
I
K
J

F
H
G
I
K
J
F
H
G
I
K
J
+
F
H
G
I
K
J
F
H
G
I
K
J
L
N
M
M
O
Q
P
P
=
+

+
+
F
H
G
I
K
J
F
H
G
I
K
J
+

+
F
H
G
I
K
J
L
N
-
-
- -
-
-
-
-
1
1
1 0
0
1
2
2
2
1
2
2
2
1 2
2 1
1 2
2 1
1
2
1 2
2 1
1
2
1
2
2
2
1
2
2
2
1
2
2
2
1
2
1 1 2 2
2 1 1 2
s s
s s
s s
s s
s s
s s
s s
s s
n
n
s s
s s
s s
s n s n
s n s n
H
S r
M
M
O
Q
P
P
STBC Estimation Scheme:
How It Works
The channel estimate can now be shown.

o
o
o
o ,
o ,
, ,
=
F
H
G
I
K
J
=
+
+
F
H
G
I
K
J
=

+
=
+
+
- -
1
2
1 1
2 2
1
1 1 2 2
1
2
2
2
2
2 1 1 2
1
2
2
2
where
and
s n s n
s s
s n s n
s s
QPSK Using Pilot Sequence
Estimation
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
10
-5
10
-4
10
-3
10
-2
10
-1
10
0
QPSK with running average estimation
Received SNR
B
E
R

The equation from the previous
slides was used to implement a
pilot symbol estimation scheme.
The frame size for each example
was 60 bits.
The channel was assumed to be
quasi-static, or constant fading
over a frame.
r=1/2
r=2/3
r=3/4
r=4/5
perfect CSI
Results of Pilot Estimation
Simulations
The rate 1/2 and rate 2/3 schemes perform at
a loss of only 2dB as compared to the case of
perfect CSI.
The rate 3/4 and rate 4/5 schemes perform at
a loss of approximately 3 dB as compared to
the case of perfect CSI.
Conclusions
and Future Work
Conclusions:
Block space time codes are sensitive to channel estimation errors.
The impact of phase and amplitude errors were studied separately and
jointly.
Pilot symbol techniques can be used to assist estimation.
Future Work:
Other modulation types, such as QAM, FSK, and DPSK, will be tested.
Correlated fading between transmit and receive pairs and variable fading
rates should be taken into account.
Turbo principles can be used to facilitate the implementation of iterative
channel estimation and decoding techniques.