Scattered pilot pattern and channel estimation method for MIMO-OFDM systems

• US 8,774,223 B2
• Filed: 09/14/2012
• Issued: 07/08/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 10/17/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Malikie Innovations Limited (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Inventors: Zhu, Peiying, Tong, Wen, Ma, Jianglei, Jia, Ming
• Primary Examiner(s): Nooristany, Sulaiman
• Application Number:
  US13/616,438
• Publication Number:
  US 20130010808A1
• Time in Patent Office: 662 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 370/474
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/04 using two or more spaced independent antennas
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0413 MIMO systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0684 using different training sequences per antenna
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0618 Space-time coding
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 25/0204 of multiple channels
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 25/022 of frequency response
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 25/0234 by non-linear interpolation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 25/0244 with inversion
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 27/2602 Signal structure
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 27/26035 Maintenance of orthogonality, e.g. for signals exchanged between cells or users, or by using covering codes or sequences using different training sequence per antenna H04B7/0684; code allocation H04J13/16
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 27/2613 Structure of the reference signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 27/26134 Pilot insertion in the transmitter chain, e.g. pilot overlapping with data, insertion in time or frequency domain
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 27/2627 Modulators
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0023 Time-frequency-space
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0048 Allocation of pilot signals, i.e. of signals known to the receiver
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/42 in systems with time, space, frequency or polarisation diversity

Abstract

Methods and apparatus are provided for inserting data symbols and pilot symbols in an OFDM (orthogonal frequency division multiplexing) transmission resource utilizing frequency hopping patterns for the data symbols and/or the pilot symbols. Data symbols and pilot symbols are allocated for down link (base station to mobile station) and up link (mobile station to bases station) transmission resources in a two-dimensional time-frequency pattern. For each antenna of a MIMO-OFDM (multiple input multiple output OFDM) communication system, pilot symbols are inserted in a scattered pattern in time-frequency and data symbols are inserted in an identical frequency-hopping pattern in time-frequency as that of other antennas.

Claims

1. A method of inserting data symbols into Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) frames at an OFDM transmitter having a plurality of transmitting antennas, the OFDM frames having a time domain and a frequency domain, the method comprising:

for each of the plurality antennas, inserting pilot symbols in a respective scattered pattern in time-frequency;

for each of the plurality of antennas, permuting data sub-carriers according to a frequency-hopping pattern that is identical for all of the plurality of antennas; and

for each of the plurality of antennas, mapping each of a plurality of data symbols to a selected OFDM symbol and a selected data sub-carrier.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein mapping each data symbol to at least one respective combination of a selected antenna, a selected OFDM symbol and a selected data sub-carrier comprises mapping each data symbol to at least one of an even OFDM symbol and an odd OFDM symbol defined for the selected antenna, the even OFDM symbol and the odd OFDM symbol to be transmitted consecutively by the selected antenna.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein mapping each data symbol to at least one respective combination of a selected antenna, a selected OFDM symbol and a selected data sub-carrier comprises mapping each data symbol to a respective even OFDM symbol for one antenna of the plurality of antennas, and to a respective odd OFDM symbol for another antenna of the plurality of antennas.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein mapping each data symbol to a respective even OFDM symbol for one antenna of the plurality of antennas, and to a respective odd OFDM symbol for another antenna of the plurality of antennas comprises mapping a complex conjugate of each data symbol to one of the even OFDM symbol defined for one antenna and the odd OFDM symbol defined for the other antenna.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein mapping each data symbol to at least one respective combination of a selected antenna, a selected OFDM symbol and a selected data sub-carrier comprises mapping the data symbols according to a space-time transmit diversity (STTD) coding scheme defined by the following table:

6. The method of claim 2, wherein mapping each data symbol to at least one respective combination of a selected antenna, a selected OFDM symbol and a selected data subcarrier comprises mapping each data symbol to a one respective combination of a selected antenna, a selected OFDM symbol and a selected data subcarrier.

7. The method of claim 2, wherein mapping each data symbol to at least one respective combination of a selected antenna, a selected OFDM symbol and a selected data sub-carrier comprises mapping the data symbols according to a spatial multiplexing (SM) coding scheme defined by the following table:

8. The method of claim 1, wherein inserting pilot symbols in a respective scattered pattern in time-frequency comprises:

for a first antenna of the plurality of antennas, inserting pilot symbols in a first scattered pattern in time-frequency and inserting null symbols in a second scattered pattern in time-frequency; and

for a second antenna of the plurality of antennas, inserting pilot symbols in the second scattered pattern in time-frequency and inserting null symbols in the first scattered pattern in time-frequency.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein inserting scattered pilot symbols comprises:

for a first antenna of the plurality of antennas, alternating insertion of pilot symbols and null symbols in a first diagonal arrangement in time-frequency; and

for a second antenna of the plurality of antennas, alternating insertion of pilot symbols and null symbols in a second diagonal arrangement in time-frequency such that pilot symbol locations in time-frequency for the second antenna correspond to null symbol locations in time-frequency for the first antenna, and null symbol locations in time-frequency for the second antenna correspond to pilot symbol locations in time-frequency for the first antenna.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein inserting scattered pilot symbols comprises:

for a first antenna of the plurality of antennas, inserting pilot symbols in a first diagonal arrangement in time-frequency and inserting null symbols in a second diagonal arrangement in time-frequency such that the first and second arrangement are offset by a constant distance in time-frequency; and

for a second antenna of the plurality of antennas, inserting null symbols in the first diagonal arrangement in time-frequency and inserting pilot symbols in the second diagonal arrangement in time-frequency such that pilot symbol locations in time-frequency for the second antenna correspond to null symbol locations in time-frequency for the first antenna, and null symbol locations in time-frequency for the second antenna correspond to pilot symbol locations in time-frequency for the first antenna.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein:

inserting pilot symbols comprises inserting the pilot symbols for each of the plurality of antennas in a respective scattered pattern in time-frequency such that pilot symbols for no two antennas occupy the same location in time-frequency; and

mapping data symbols to data subcarriers comprises mapping data symbols to a set of spaced-apart subcarriers that change each symbol duration of a plurality of symbol durations.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein mapping data symbols to data subcarriers comprises mapping data symbols to a set of subcarriers that is constant over a set of consecutive symbol durations and changes for each set of multiple sets of consecutive symbol durations.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the inserted pilot symbols and mapped data symbols do not overlap within the OFDM frame.

14. A system for inserting data symbols into Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) frames in an OFDM transmitter having a plurality of transmitting antennas, the OFDM frames having a time domain and a frequency domain, the system comprising:

at least one pilot inserter operable, for each antenna, to insert pilot symbols in a respective scattered pattern in time-frequency; and

at least one encoder operable, for each of the plurality of antennas to;

permute data sub-carriers according to a frequency-hopping pattern that is identical for all of the plurality of antennas; and

map each of a plurality of data symbols to a selected OFDM symbol and a selected data sub-carrier.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein:

the at least one pilot inserter comprises a pilot inserter for each antenna; and

the at least one encoder comprises an encoder for each of the plurality of antennas.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein each encoder is operable to map each data symbol to at least one respective combination of a selected antenna, a selected OFDM symbol and a selected data sub-carrier by mapping each data symbol to at least one of an even OFDM symbol and an odd OFDM symbol defined for the selected antenna, the even OFDM symbol and the odd OFDM symbol to be transmitted consecutively by the selected antenna.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein each encoder is operable to map each data symbol to at least one respective combination of a selected antenna, a selected OFDM symbol and a selected data sub-carrier by mapping each data symbol to a respective even OFDM symbol for one antenna of the plurality of antennas, and to a respective odd OFDM symbol for another antenna of the plurality of antennas.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein each encoder is operable to map each data symbol to a respective even OFDM symbol for one antenna of the plurality of antennas, and to a respective odd OFDM symbol for another antenna of the plurality of antennas by mapping a complex conjugate of each data symbol to one of the even OFDM symbol defined for one antenna and the odd OFDM symbol defined for the other antenna.

19. The system of claim 16, wherein each encoder is operable to map each data symbol to at least one respective combination of a selected antenna, a selected OFDM symbol and a selected data sub-carrier by mapping the data symbols according to a space-time transmit diversity (STTD) coding scheme defined by the following table:

20. The system of claim 16, wherein each encoder is operable to map each data symbol to at least one respective combination of a selected antenna, a selected OFDM symbol and a selected data subcarrier by mapping each data symbol to a one respective combination of a selected antenna, a selected OFDM symbol and a selected data subcarrier.

21. The system of claim 16, wherein each encoder is operable to map each data symbol to at least one respective combination of a selected antenna, a selected OFDM symbol and a selected data sub-carrier by mapping the data symbols according to a spatial multiplexing (SM) coding scheme defined by the following table:

22. The system of claim 14, wherein the at least one pilot inserter is operable to insert pilot symbols in a respective scattered pattern in time-frequency by:

for a first antenna of the plurality of antennas, inserting pilot symbols in a first scattered pattern in time-frequency and inserting null symbols in a second scattered pattern in time-frequency; and

for a second antenna of the plurality of antennas, inserting pilot symbols in the second scattered pattern in time-frequency and inserting null symbols in the first scattered pattern in time-frequency.

23. The system of claim 14, wherein the at least one pilot inserter is operable to insert scattered pilot symbols by:

for a first antenna of the plurality of antennas, alternating insertion of pilot symbols and null symbols in a first diagonal arrangement in time-frequency; and

for a second antenna of the plurality of antennas, alternating insertion of pilot symbols and null symbols in a second diagonal arrangement in time-frequency such that pilot symbol locations in time-frequency for the second antenna correspond to null symbol locations in time-frequency for the first antenna, and null symbol locations in time-frequency for the second antenna correspond to pilot symbol locations in time-frequency for the first antenna.

24. The system of claim 14, wherein the pilot inserters are operable to insert scattered pilot symbols by:

for a first antenna of the plurality of antennas, inserting pilot symbols in a first diagonal arrangement in time-frequency and inserting null symbols in a second diagonal arrangement in time-frequency such that the first and second arrangement are offset by a constant distance in time-frequency; and

for a second antenna of the plurality of antennas, inserting null symbols in the first diagonal arrangement in time-frequency and inserting pilot symbols in the second diagonal arrangement in time-frequency such that pilot symbol locations in time-frequency for the second antenna correspond to null symbol locations in time-frequency for the first antenna, and null symbol locations in time-frequency for the second antenna correspond to pilot symbol locations in time-frequency for the first antenna.

25. The system of claim 14, wherein:

the pilot inserters are operable to insert pilot symbols by inserting the pilot symbols for each antenna in a respective scattered pattern in time-frequency such that pilot symbols for no two antennas occupy the same location in time-frequency; and

each encoder is operable to map data symbols to data subcarriers by mapping data symbols to a set of spaced-apart subcarriers that change each symbol duration of a plurality of symbol durations.

26. The system of claim 22, wherein each encoder is operable to map data symbols to data subcarriers by mapping data symbols to a set of subcarriers that is constant over a set of consecutive symbol durations and changes for each set of multiple sets of consecutive symbol durations.

27. The system of claim 14, wherein the inserted pilot symbols and mapped data symbols do not overlap within the OFDM frame.