Joint channel estimation and data

detection for OFDM based cooperative

system

Mokhtar Besseghier, Ahmed Bouzidi

Djebbar, Abdelhak Zouggaret & Iyad
Dayoub

Telecommunication Systems
Modelling, Analysis, Design and
Management

ISSN 1018-4864

Telecommun Syst
DOI 10.1007/s11235-019-00622-3

1 23
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 Author's personal copy
Telecommunication Systems
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11235-019-00622-3

Joint channel estimation and data detection for OFDM based

cooperative system
Mokhtar Besseghier1,2 · Ahmed Bouzidi Djebbar1 · Abdelhak Zouggaret2 · Iyad Dayoub3

© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2019

Abstract
Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing based cooperative system using Alamouti space–time block coding at relay
node represents an alternative solution to achieve better connectivity and significant enhancement to the data rate in wireless
fading channels. But, these advantages cannot be achieved without an efficient estimation of the channels which becomes
more challenging for cooperative communications. This paper addresses the joint channel estimation and data detection for
cooperative communication systems. Indeed, equispaced pilot symbols are used by maximum likelihood (ML) algorithm
to derive channels estimator, and then equalizers are calculated and applied to improve receiver data detection. The main
contribution of our work is the development of the ML estimator, the corresponding Cramer–Rao lower bound, mean square
error, signal to interference plus noise ratio, outage probability, bit error probability and the use of simulations to demonstrate
the superior performances of the proposed methods.

Keywords Cooperative · OFDM · Estimation · SINR · CRLB · MSE · BEP · ML · Outage probability

1 Introduction coding (STBC) in OFDM-based cooperative systems rep-

Cooperative communication systems have coming in last
years an alternative technology to achieve the spatial diver-
sity leading to an increase in capacity and reliability [1–5].
They have a basic principle of virtual multiple antenna sys-
tems, and this, by sharing separated antennas (source, relay
and destinations nodes) in distributed manner. To guarantee
lower error rate and high-quality of service, the cooperative
system is combined to OFDM [6]. But, these advantages
cannot be achieved without an efficient estimation of the
channels. However, it is well known that cooperative com-
munications make channel estimation more complicated. To
meet these challenges, the introduction of space–time block
B Ahmed Bouzidi Djebbar
ahbou_djebbar@yahoo.fr
Mokhtar Besseghier
m.besseghier@yahoo.fr
1 Laboratoire TTNS, Université Djillali Liabes de Sidi Bel
Abbes, Sidi Bel Abbès, Algeria
2 Université Mustapha Stambouli Mascara, Mascara, Algeria
3 Université Polytechnique Hauts-de-France, CNRS, University
Lille, ISEN, Centrale Lille, UMR 8520 IEMN, DOAE, Le
Mont Houy, Valenciennes, France
resents the key for being able to control the transmitted
sequences and to estimate the channels in a simple and effec-
tive manner [7–11]. The full-rate full-diversity STBC code
was proposed by Alamouti [12]. It has been considered as
an efficient transmit diversity technique in wireless commu-
nication channel systems for its full-diversity performance
with a symbol rate of one and its simple decoding scheme
[12, 13].
Many joint channel estimation and data detection tech-
niques can be found in the literature [14–21], and a good
overview is given in [18]. These techniques are based on blind
and semi-blind joint maximum likelihood (ML) channel and
data estimation schemes for MIMO channels. Performance
analysis in terms of MSE and CRLB under imperfect channel
state information (CSI) has been considered in [19–22].
In [23–26], authors have presented the bit error rate
(BER) performance for many cases. The authors in [23] have
analyzed the effect of MMSE channel estimation on BER
performance for OSTBC. In [24], they give the BER per-
formance of the distributed Alamouti’s code for cooperative
transmission, but without any consideration of channel esti-
mation error effect. This topic has considered in [25] for
MIMO ZF receivers and in [26] for cooperative transmission
systems.

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M. Besseghier et al.

In this paper, three nodes namely source, relay and des-

tination, equipped with single antenna for each one, are
considered for OFDM-based cooperative system. Equis-
paced pilot symbols, inserted in each OFDM symbol, are
exploited by ML algorithm to derive the channels estimator
jointly with data detection. Thereafter, analytical expres-
sions of MSE and CRLB of channel estimator are developed.
Furthermore, a tight approximation of SINR distribution is (a) Cooperative system structure.
derived and system performance in terms of outage prob-
ability and BEP of MPSK and MQAM modulations are
Source
calculated. The obtained performances show a close con-
vergence between numerical and analytic results, which
demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed methods. P

Insert Pilots
Mapping

CP
Data S /
The rest of the paper is organized as follows. In the next

IFFT
/ S
P
section, we represent the system model of OFDM based
cooperative system. Joint channel estimation and data detec-
tion algorithms are derived in Sect. 2, while MSE and CRLB
for channels estimator are proposed in Sect. 4. Based on
the approximation of SINR distribution we develop a tight Relay

closed-form approximation for the outage probability and

BEP of M-PSK and M-QAM modulations in Sect. 5. Simu- AC
Alamouti
lation results are presented in Sect. 6, and we conclude the
paper in Sect. 7.
Throughout this paper, upper (lower) bold face letters
indicate matrices (column vectors). Superscripts (.)H , (.)∗ , Destination

(.)T , and (.)† will denote Hermitian, conjugate, transpose and

Alamouti S
pseudo-inverse respectively. diag(x) will stand for diagonal
Demappin

Decoding

S/CP
Data P /

FFT
matrix with the vector x on its main diagonal, while tr(X) cor- / P
S
responds to the trace of matrix X. For a vector, · denotes Estimation
the Euclidean norm. The (N × N ) null matrix is represented
by 0 N , and IN signify the (N × N ) identity matrix. {·} and (b) Baseband Model of OFDM based cooperative
J{·} indicate the real and imaginary parts and E{·} represents system
the expectation operator.
Fig. 1 a Cooperative system structure. b Baseband model of OFDM
based cooperative system

2 System model
Let us consider an OFDM based cooperative system with
three nodes source, destination and relay nodes equipped
with single antenna for each one as shown in Fig. 1a. The
destination node will combine the received signals coming
from source and relay nodes. The N subcarriers formed the
OFDM signal are split in two subsets of Nα and Nβ sub-
carriers attributed to pilot
 and data symbols respectively.
 For
that, we define α  α1 . . . α Nα and β  β1 . . . β Nβ as
pilot and data indexes with car d{α ∪ β}  N . The M-PSK
or M-QAM modulations are used as mapping for Nβ data
symbols, while Nα pilot symbols are considered as non-zero
symbols.
The serial data stream is mapped to data symbols employ-
ing M-PSK or M-QAM modulation scheme, and the resulting
symbol stream si is demultiplexed with pilot symbols pi into
a vector of N data symbols xi  [xi (0), . . . , xi (N − 1)]T .
Next, the inverse F F T (I F F T ) is applied to the data
symbol vector giving thus the OFDM symbol qi 
 T
qi (0), . . . , qi (N − 1) . To overcome the ISI generated by
time-dispersive channel, each time-domain OFDM symbol
is extended by the so-called cyclic prefix of L cp samples

duration. The L cp + N samples are transmitted sequen-
tially over the channel to relay and destination nodes. At the
received nodes, the samples of the cyclic prefix after serial to
parallel converted are removed, and the remaining N samples
are computed employing an N − F F T , and the recovered
data symbols zi are restored in serial order after processing
(estimation, Alamouti decoding) and demultiplexed [27].
Thus, the i-th transmitted OFDM symbol from the source
node is expressed as
qi  FH xi (1)

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Joint channel estimation and data detection for OFDM based cooperative system

 
where xi  Tα pi + Tβ si is (N × 1) vector containing data where v2i and v2i+1 are time-domain complex Gaussian noise
  T
symbols vector si  si (0), . . . , si Nβ − 1 multiplexed vectors at the destination
 node
 with zero means and variances
 T equal to σv2  σd2 + τσw2 . σd2 is the noise variance at the
with pilot symbols pi  pi (0), . . . , pi (Nα − 1) . Tα and
destination node.
Tβ are permutation matrices used to insert the data with pilot
Channel characteristics are assumed to be  invariant
symbols in one vector xi , and F is the FFT matrix defined by
over two consecutive OFDM symbols. hsd is L sd × 1
1 vector representing the channel impulse response (CIR)
F  √ [f1 , f2 , . . . , f N ]H  sd 
sd H
N of source–destination link, and 0  f1L . . . f NL
sd
 T is the FFT matrix applied to hsd with fnL 
with fn  1, e j2π n/N , . . . , e j2π n(N −1)/N .   sd  T
To prevent inter-symbol interference (ISI) in multipath 1, e j2π n/N , . . . , e j2π n L −1 /N .
channel, the length of CP, L cp , is chosen to be We define the equivalent CFR of source–relay–destina-
 equal or supe-
 √ ∗
rior to the channel order L, with L  max L sr , L sd , L r d , tion (S–R–D) links by h̃sr d  τ h̃sr h̃r d  0̄h sr d , and the
where L sr , L sd , L r d denote the length of source–relay, equivalent channel impulse response (CIR) of (S–R–D) links
source–destination and relay–destination links respectively. by
The i-th received OFDM symbol at the relay node, after √
CP removing, is written as follows hsr d  τxcorr (hsr , hr d ) (6)

zi  FH Xi h̃sr + wr ,i (2) where xcorr

 (.) means
 the cross-correlation operation,
 and
hsr d is L sr d × 1 vector with L sr d  2max L sr , L r d −
  sr d 
sr d H
where Xi  diag(xi ) and h̃sr  h̃ sr (0), . . . , h̃ sr 1. 0̄  f1L . . . f NL is the FFT matrix applied to
T    sr r d  
hsr d , and fnL  e j2π n N −max L , L +1 /N , . . . , 1, . . . ,
sr d
(N − 1) is the vector of channel frequency response (CFR)
for source–relay link. wr , i is a zero-mean complex Additive   sr r d   T
e j2π n max L , L −1 /N .
White Gaussian Noise (AWGN) vector with variance σw2 at
relay antenna. With matrix notation, Eq. (5) becomes
The received signal after OFDM demodulation is written
as yi  F H Xi h + vi . (7)

z̃i  Xi h̃sr + w̃r ,i (3)

with w̃r , i  Fwr , i . To apply the Alamouti STBC, the source
node transmit two consecutive OFDM symbols denoted
respectively by (X2i , X2i+1 ). The amplified
 √and∗ coded (AC)
√ ∗ 
signal at the relay node is expressed by − τ z̃2i+1 τz̃2i .
This processed signal is retransmitted to the destination node
and combined with the one sent by the source to the destina-
tion node.
3 Joint channel estimation and data
detection
In this section, pilot symbols are used by ML algorithm to
estimate channels jointly with data detection. As mentioned
earlier, the transmitted signal in (7) is the superposition of
data and pilot symbols as illustrated by the following equa-
tion
At the destination node received signals are expressed as  
⎧   yi  FαH Pi α + FβH Si β h + vi (8)
⎨ y2i  FH X2i h̃sd − √τX∗ h̃∗ h̃r d + v2i
 2i+1 sr 
⎩ y2i+1  FH X2i+1 h̃sd + √τX∗ h̃∗ h̃r d + v2i+1
(4) which can be reformulated as
2i sr

 
H 
∗


y2i Fα 0 P2i −P2i+1 0α 0
 ∗
y2i+1 0 FαH P2i+1 P2i 0 0̄α
Here, h̃sd is the CFR vector for source–destination link.  

H ∗




τ is the amplification factor at the relay node. For notational F 0 S2i −S2i+1 0β 0 hsd v2i
+ β +
simplicity, Eq. (4) can be rewritten as fellow 0 FβH S2i+1 S∗2i 0 0̄β hsr d v2i+1

 H  ∗
   where
y2i F 0 X2i −X2i+1 00 hsd
 ∗
y2i+1 0 FH X2i+1 X2i 0 0̄ hsr d
 S2i+t  diag(s2i+t ); P2i+t  diag(p2i+t ), and t ∈ {1, 2}
v2i
+
v2i+1 (5) FαH F H
Tα ; FβH H
 F Tβ

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 sd sd H
  sd 
sd H
0α  fαL1 . . . fαLNα , 0β  fβL1 . . . fβLN After Alamouti decoding of the received signal, we get
β
 sr d H  sr d   
L sr d sr d H ∗
0̄α  fα1 . . . fα Nα
L
, 0̄β  fβ1 . . . fβLN
L Ỹβ, 2i Ỹβ,
β Yi  2i+1
∗
Ỹβ, 2i+1 −Ỹβ, 2i
Exploiting the orthogonality between Fα and Fβ , i.e.
Fα FβH  02Nα ×2Nβ , and the propriety Fα FαH  I2Nα , and  
where Ỹ  diag ỹ .
by left multiplication of (8) by Fα , we get The transmitted data symbols s2i and s2i+1 can be recov-
ered after zero-forcing (ZF) channel equalization as follow
ỹα,i  Pi α h + ṽα,i (9)

where ỹα, i  Fα yi , and ṽα, i  Fα vi . ŝi  Yi Ch

  ∗
 
To estimate h, we propose to solve the proposed ML based ŝ2i Ỹβ,2i Ỹβ,2i+1 csd
quadratic cost function defined by  ∗ (14)
ŝ2i+1 Ỹβ,2i+1 −Ỹβ,2i csr d
 2
Jα  ỹα,i − Pi α h (10)   T
where csd  csd (0), . . . , csd (k), . . . , csd Nβ − 1 ,
  T
where csr d  csr d (0), . . . , csr d (k), . . . , csr d Nβ − 1 . csd
 ∗
  2 (k)  h−1 (k)h̃ ∗sd (k), csr d (k)  h−1 (k)h̃ sr d (k) and h (k) 
ỹα, 2i P2i −P2i+1 0α 0 hsd  2  2
Jα  −    
ỹα, 2i+1 P2i+1 ∗
P2i 0 0̄α hsr d h̃ sd (k) + h̃ sr d (k) .

The minimization of this equation is a complex least

square (LS) problem for channels estimate. By setting to
zero the derivatives of Jα with respect to hH H 4 MSE and Cramer–Rao lower bound
sd and hsr d , we
obtain the channels estimate as follow
New expressions of MSE and CRLB of channels estimation
are derived in this section.
ĥ  †α P i† ỹα,i (11)

where 4.1 MSE

      
ĥsd 0α† 0 −1 0 ∗
P2i ∗
P2i+1 ỹα, 2i The MSE of channels estimator is defined by
 p
ĥsr d 0 0̄α† 0 −1
p −P2i+1 P2i ỹα, 2i+1  
M S E channel  E hhH (15)
with  p  |P2i |2 + |P2i+1 |2 . By considering the same pilots
for all Nb transmitted blocks, i.e. P2i  P2i+1  P, we get
    whereh   ĥ − h  †α Pi† ṽα is channels estimation error,
  
0α† 0 e−1 P∗ 0 and E ṽα ṽH
α  σv I( L sd +L sr d ) . Equation (15) can be rewrit-
ĥsd 0 ỹα,2i+1 + ỹα,2i 2
 p
ĥsr d 0 0̄α† 0 e−1
p 0 P∗ ỹα,2i+1 − ỹα,2i ten as
(12)
 
M S E channel  σv2 tr †α Pi† Pi α (16)
To obtain accurate estimates of CIRs, the number of pilot
symbols Nα must be equal or superior to L sr d (i.e. Nα ≥
L sr d ) as confirmed later by simulation results. which becomes after computations
By left multiplication of (8) by Fβ , we obtain  
M S E channel  e2 L sd + L sr d (17)
ỹβ,i  Si β h + ṽβ,i (13)

where where
    
ỹβ, 2i S2i −S∗2i+1 0β 0 hsd ṽβ, 2i σv2
 + , e2  (18)
ỹβ, 2i+1 S2i+1 S∗2i 0 0̄β hsr d ṽβ, 2i+1 2E p Nα Nb

ỹβ, i  Fβ yi and ṽβ, i  Fβ vi .

and E p  | p2i+t |2 is the power of the pilot symbol.

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4.2 CRLB The CRLB is defined by [21]:

It is important to know the CRLB in order to fairly assess CRLB(θ )  j−1 (θ ) (21)
the estimation performance of the proposed algorithm. The
CRLB describes the best achievable performance for unbi- where j(θ ) is (Q × Q) Fisher’s information matrix (FIM)
ased estimators. It represents the theoretical lower bound of defined by [21]
the MSE of the estimator.
 H  
We have derived analytical expression of the Cramer–Rao 2 ∂ ∂
lower bound (CRLB) of the channels estimator for OFDM j(θ)  2  ln F(y/θ ) ln F(y/θ ) (22)
σv ∂θ ∂θ
based cooperative system, which serves as a benchmark for
estimation performance.
For Nb transmitted blocks, we collect the received blocks The unknown parameters are computed as fellow
into matrices, and then Eq. (8) becomes
  (a) For data computation
y  FH H
α Pα + Fβ Sβ h + v (19)
∂ ∂
ln F(y/θ )  −j ln F(y/θ )
∂s R (n) ∂s I (n)
where
 FH
β G 1,n β h (23)
 T  T
y  y0T . . . yTNb −1 ; v  v0T . . . vTNb −1
∂ ∂
⎡ ⎤ ⎡ ⎤ ln F(y/θ )  −j ∗ ln F(y/θ )
S0 . . . 0 P0 . . . 0 ∂s∗R (n) ∂s I (n)
⎢ .. . . .. ⎥ ⎢ . .. ⎥
S⎣ . . . ⎦; P  ⎣ .. . . . . ⎦  FH
β G 2,n β h (24)
0 . . . S Nb −1 0 . . . P Nb −1
⎡ H ⎤ ⎡ ⎤  
Fα . . . 0 FβH . . . 0 we define G1, n 
Gn 0
, G2, n 
0 Gn
, where Gn
⎢ . . . .. ⎥ ⎢ . . . ⎥ Gn 0 0 Gn
FH . . ⎦; F β  ⎢ ⎥
H
α  ⎣ .. ⎣ .. . . .. ⎦ is a diagonal matrix with the same size as Si that contains
0 . . . FαH 0 . . . FβH one at the n-th position and! zeros for the remain posi-
 T  T tions, and n ∈ 1 . . . Nβ . For Nb transmitted blocks,
α  α, ⎡ ⎤
1 . . . α, Nb ; β  β, 1 . . . β, Nb
T T T T
Gt, n . . . 0
⎢ ⎥  
  G t, n  ⎣ ... . . . ... ⎦ is 2Nβ Nb × 2Nβ Nb matrix
where S and P are 2Nβ Nb × 2Nβ Nb and
0 . . . Gt, n
(2Nα Nb × 2Nα Nb ) data and pilot matrices respectively. F H α with t ∈ {1, 2}.
and F Hβ represents the IFFT matrices for data and pilot sym- (b) For channels derivation
  sd 
  α and 
β are 2Nα Nb × L + L
bols respectively. sr d

and 2Nβ Nb × L sd + L sr d FFT matrices of channels. y ∂ ∂

ln F(y/θ )  −j ln F(y/θ )
and y are (2N Nb × 1) vectors of the received signal and ∂ hsd,R ∂ hsd,I
additive white Gaussian noise respectively.  F H X 1 (25)
Then, the likelihood function for our estimation problem
is defined as ∂ ∂
 ln F(y/θ )  −j ln F(y/θ )
1 1    ∂ hsr d,R ∂ hsr d,I
H H
F(y/θ)    N Nb ex p − 2 y − F α P α + Fβ S β h
2
2πσ 2 σv  F H X 2 (26)
v
(20)
 T
where 1  I L sd 0 L sd ×L sr d , and 2 
To compute the CRLB, we define the (1 × Q) vector  T
 T 0 L sr d ×L sd I L sr d . 1 and 2 are permutation matri-
of unknown parameters θ  hsd hsr d ss∗ , with Q  2
 sd     T  ces used for channel derivations. For Nb transmitted
L + L sr d + 2Nβ , s  sTR sTI , hsd  hsd, T
hsd, blocks, we obtain the FIM matrix j(θ )
 T  R I
and hsr d  hsr T
d, R hsr d, I . s R , s I , h R , and h I stand  
for real and imaginary parts of s and h respectively. s is 2 2E s N Nb I EH H
β S Hβ
the transmitted data vector to destination node through the j(θ )  2  (27)
σv HH
β SEβ
H
2Hβ Hβ
source–destination link, while s∗ is the transmitted data vec-
tor through the source–relay–destination link.

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where E s  |s2i+t |2 is data symbols power. Based on previously MSE computation, the channels esti-
 mation given by Eq. (11) can be decomposed as following
Isd 0 [22]
I
0 Isr d
 
I L sd jI L sd I L sr d jI L sr d ĥ  h + h (30)
Isd  ; Isr d 
− jI L sd I L sd − jI L sr d I L sr d
  where h is modeled as a zero-mean i.i.d complex Gaus-
H̃βsd j H̃βsd 0 0 sian vector with variance equal to e2 [22]. The previous ZF
Hβ 
0 0 H̃βsr d j H̃βsr d equalizer coefficients become
   
with H̃βsd  0β hsd , H̃βsr d  0̄β hsr d . csd  h̃ ∗sd + h̃ ∗sd ˆ −1
h , c sr d  h̃ sr d +  h̃ sr d ˆ −1
h
   2  2
0β j0β 0 0 S̄2i −S̄∗2i+1
Eβ  and Si  ∗ . where ˆ h  h̃ sd + h̃ sd  + h̃ sr d + h̃ sr d  . By dropping
0 0 0̄β j 0̄β S̄2i+1 S̄2i
the subscript k, Eq. (14) for the first and second symbol
S̄2i and S̄2i+1 are defined by becomes

ŝi  ˆ −1
h (h si + ψi + ηi ) (31)
S̄2i  (S2i + S2i+1 ); S̄2i+1  (S2i+1 − S2i ).
where
After computations, the CRLB for channels estimation is
given by 
s2i
• Transmitted and estimated data symbols are si 
s2i+1
σv2 
CRLB(h)   " Nb −1 H H  ŝ2i
and ŝi  respectively.
 4E s N Nb I − i0 Eβ Si Hβ H†β Si Eβ ŝ
2i+1  
(28) s2i −s∗2i+1 h̃ sd h̃ ∗sd + h̃ ∗sr d h̃ sr d
• ISI:ψi  .
s2i+1 s∗2i h̃ sr d h̃ ∗sd − h̃ ∗sd h̃ sr d
     
where S i is 4Nβ × 4N β , Hβ is 2Nβ × 4Nβ and Eβ is ṽβ, 2i ṽ∗β, 2i+1 h̃ ∗sd + h̃ ∗sd
  • Noise: ηi  ∗ .
4Nβ × 2 L sd + L sr d matrices. Pilot and data symbols are ṽβ, 2i+1 −ṽβ, 2i h̃ sr d + h̃ sr d
used to derive the CRLB in (28). Based only on pilot symbols
the CRLB is reduced to The power of the incoming signal is calculated as
   
σv2 L sd + L sr d E si siH  22h ˆ −2
h Es (32)
CRLB(h)  (29)
2E s Nα Nb
The power of the interference (ISI), generated by channels
which can be considered as a lower bound of (28). estimation errors, is computed as
 
E ψi ψiH ≈ 2e2 h ˆ −2h Es (33)
5 Outage probability and bit error
probability The noise power can be expressed by
 
We focus in this section on the SINR of OFDM based coop- E ηi ηiH  2−1
h σv
2
(34)
erative ZF receiver in presence of channels estimation errors.
Based on the approximation of SINR distribution, we develop The SINR is now defined by
a tight closed-form approximation for the outage probability
!
and the Bit Error Probability (BEP) of M-PSK and M-QAM E si siH
modulations. γ ! !
E ψi ψiH + E ηi ηiH

5.1 SINR derivation using the approximation ˆ h ≈ h + 2e2 , and after substitu-
tions, the SINR γ becomes
To assess the performance of the receiver, a definition of the
SINR is needed. Indeed, we focus in this subsection to the h E s
γ≈ (35)
derivation of a new expression of the SINR. e2 E s + σv2 + 2σv2 e2 −1
h

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Joint channel estimation and data detection for OFDM based cooperative system

the term σv2 e2 −1

h in (35) can be neglected, because e  1
2 calculation of the bit error probability developed for MIMO
and scaled by σv which is too small. So (35) can be expressed
2 systems in favor of cooperative systems. Indeed and based on
by works in [23–26] and in [30–32], analytic expressions of BEP
for M-PSK and M-QAM modulations in AWGN channel are
h E s
γ≈ (36) expressed by
e E s + σv2
2

• For M-PSK
By substitution of Eq. (29) into (36), we obtain
2 $
max(1,M/4)
2E p Nα Nb E s h Pe (err /x) ≈  
γ≈ (37) max log2 M, 2
σv2 E s + 2E p Nα Nb σv2  
i1
% (2i − 1)π
Q 2γs xsin (43)
which can be written as M

γ  γs x (38) • For M-QAM

√  √
log2 M 1−2−k M−1
2 $ $
where Pe (err /x)  √ √
Mlog2 M k1 i0
   & ' 
2E p Nα Nb E s i.2 k−1
i.2k−1 1 3γs x
γs  2 (39) (−1)
√
M 2 k−1
− √ + Q (2i + 1)
σv E s + 2E p Nα Nb σv2 M 2 M −1
(44)
Since h and h have Rayleigh distribution, x  h 
 2  sd 2 sr d
    (∞  2
h̃ sd  + h̃ sr d  is a Chi square distributed random variable
where Q(x)  √1 ex p − y2 dy and t represents the
with degree of freedom n  4 [28, 29] having the probability 2π
x
density function (PDF) f (x) largest integer that is no larger than t.

x n/2−1 e−x/2σ
2
The BEP in Rayleigh fading channel is obtained by aver-
f (x)  , x ≥ 0 and σ2  1/2 (40)
σ2 2n/2 (n/2) aging Eqs. (43) and (44) over the Chi square probability
density function (pdf) of x as follow
5.2 Outage probability #∞
BE P  f (x)Pe (err /x)d x (45)
The outage probability represents an important performance 0
measure of communication systems [29]. It is defined as the
probability of SINR γ falls below a pre-defined threshold γx , Which gives the following expressions
and can be expressed as
• For M-PSK
γ#x /γs 2
B E PM−PSK ≈  
Poutage (γx )  Pr(0 ≤ γs x ≤ γx )  f (x)d x (41) max log2 M, 2
0
$ 
max(1,M/4)
1  
. 1 − μi 3 − μi2 (46)
For further clarification, Poutage is also defined as a 2
i1
cumulative distribution function (CDF) of the Chi square
)
distributed random variable x evaluated at γx /γs . Using inte- γs sin 2 ((2i−1)π /M)
where μi  1+γ
gration by parts on (41), the Poutage (γx ), for our proposed s sin ((2i−1)π /M)
2
• For M-QAM
cooperative system, can be expressed as √  √
log2 M 1−2−k M−1
  2 $ $
γx −γx /γs B E PM−QAM ≈ √ √
Poutage (γx )  1 − 1 + e (42) Mlog2 M k1
γs *  
i0
+
i.2
√
k−1
i.2 k−1 1 1  
(−1) M 2k−1 − √ + 1 − μi 3 − μi2
5.3 BEP M 2 2
(47)
Cooperative system uses distributed antennas on different '
relays to achieve close to the theoretical gains of MIMO. 3(2i−1)2 γs
where μi 
2(M−1)+3(2i−1)2 γs
This will allow us to use the mathematical foundations of the

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10
Table 1 ETU channel fading model
True Channel
Estimated channel
Taps Doppler Excess tap delay Relative power
5
frequency (Hz) (ns) (dB)

1 300 0 − 1.0 0

Channel gain [dB]

2 300 50 − 1.0
3 300 120 − 1.0 -5
4 300 200 0.0
5 300 230 0.0 -10
6 300 500 0.0
7 300 1600 − 3.0 -15
8 300 2300 − 5.0
9 300 5000 − 7.0 -20

-25
50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500
6 Simulation results k (Normalized time)

Simulations are used to compare the performances of the Fig. 2 Comparison between true and estimated channels gain
proposed ML channels estimator and data detector in terms
101
of MSE, CRLB, outage probability and BEP to better under- N =32 Simulation
stand the impact of channels estimation errors on system N =32 Analytic
100
performance and also verify our analytical derivations. The N =32 CRB

comparisons are calculated using 103 Monte Carlo (MC) N =64 Simulation

10-1 N =64 Analytic

runs. N =64 CRB
We consider an OFDM based cooperative system with Min CRB
10-2
a total of N  512 subcarriers and cyclic prefix of length
MSE

L cp  16, which represents 1/32 of N . Nα i.i.d pilot symbols

are used for channels estimation, while QPSK modulation is
used for subcarriers carrying data. The magnitudes of the
channel coefficients, the h i values, are Rayleigh distributed
channels of length L sr  7, L sd  10 and L r d  8. We
assume that the channels are constants over two consecutive
OFDM symbols.
The used channel model based on the LTE transceiver
model for Rayleigh fading environment is the extended typ-
ical urban (ETU) channel defined by 3GPP [33, 34]. Their
characteristics are given in Table 1. The Doppler frequency
shift equivalent to 300 Hz for source to relay and for relay to
destination links.
In Fig. 2 an example of the true gain of ETU channel
fading model in frequency-domain is plotted together with
the estimated channel gain based on the proposed method for
N  512 points, S N R equal to 15 dB and Nα equal to 32. It
is seen that the estimated channel is much closer to the exact
one.
Figures 3 and 4 display analytical and numerical results
of MSEs and CRLBs versus SNR and of MSEs and CRLBs
versus the number of OFDM blocks Nb for SNR  14 dB.
Figures are considered for two values of the number of pilot
symbols Nα  16, and Nα  64. We remark an improvement
in results as SNR, the number of OFDM blocks Nb and the
length of Nα increase. Furthermore, the obtained numerical
results of the proposed ML channels estimator are indistin-
10-3
10-4
10-5
10-6
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
Average SNR per bit [dB]
Fig. 3 MSE of channels estimator versus average SNR per bit
guishable of analytical results. MSEs are much closer to the
CRLB, but remain inferior to the pilot symbols based CRLB
results given by (29). Indeed, we remark an improvement
when the length of Nα increases from 16 to 64 pilot symbols.
This improvement achieves his maximum when Nα  N (all
the N subcarriers are used as pilot symbols), which corre-
spond to the lower bound of CRLB (Min CRLB curves in
Figs. 2, 3).
Figure 5 shows the variation in outage probability in a
Rayleigh fading channel using (42) as a function of threshold
γx for Nα  32 and for different values of average S N R per
bit. It can be inferred that the outage probability increases
dramatically as SNR decreases and as threshold increases.
Figure 6 investigate the system performance in terms of
outage probability versus threshold γx in a Rayleigh fading

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Joint channel estimation and data detection for OFDM based cooperative system

10-1 0.06
N =32 Simulation N =1
N =32 Analytic N =4
N =32 CRB 0.05 N = 16
N =64 Simulation N = 32
10-2
N =64 Analytic
N =64 CRB 0.04
Min CRB

Poutage
MSE

10-3 0.03

0.02
-4
10
0.01

10-5 0
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2
Nb x

Fig. 4 MSE of channels estimator versus the number of OFDM Blocks Fig. 6 Outage probability versus γx for different values of Nα
Nb

100
1

0.9 10-1
SNR [dB] = 0
SNR [dB] = 7
0.8 SNR [dB] = 14
SNR [dB] = 21 10-2
0.7
BEP M-PSK

10-3
0.6
Poutage

M=2 Simulation
0.5 10-4 Analytic
Exact CIR
0.4 M=4 Simulation
10-5 Analytic
Exact CIR
0.3
M=8 Simulation
Analytic
0.2 10-6 Exact CIR

0.1
0 Average SNR per bit [dB]
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4
x
Fig. 5 Outage probability versus γx for different values of average SNR
per bit
channel using (42). Here, the average SNR per bit is fixed at
14 dB and we plot the outage probability for different values
of Nα . It is seen that as Nα increases, the outage probability
decreases. This is due to the variance of estimation errors e2
which becomes large for a small value of Nα . For example,
for the normalized γx equals to 1.2 the outage probability
is about 20% when Nα  1, while for Nα  32 the outage
probability is less than 10.
Figures 7 and 8 illustrate BEPs versus SNR for M-PSK
with M  2, 4, 8 and for M-QAM with M  4, 16, 64 respec-
tively. As expected, the analytic and numerical BEPs are the
same and are closer to the channel state information (CSI)
case.
10-7
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
1.6 1.8 2
Fig. 7 B E P versus SNR for (M − PSK) modulations
BEPs in LTE channel (ETU) versus different value of pilot
symbols Nα at fixed S N R  14 dB is illustrated in Fig. 9.
We remark an improvement in performances as the number
of pilot symbols, Nα , increases. When Nα exceeds the length
of the equivalent CIR of source–relay–destination links L sr d ,
the performances become closer to the CSI case.
7 Conclusion
In this paper, we have proposed joint channels estimation
and data detection algorithms for OFDM based cooperative
system using Alamouti STBC at the relay node. Based on
equispaced pilots, we develop ML channels estimator, and
then ZF equalizers are computed and applied to ameliorate

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M. Besseghier et al.

100 aspects and performance analysis. IEEE Transactions on Commu-

nications, 51, 1927–1948.
2. Nosratinia, A., Hunter, T. E., & Hedayat, A. (2004). Cooperative
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communication in wireless networks. IEEE Communications Mag-
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10-2
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of multiple-relay AF cooperative systems over rayleigh time-
BEP M-QAM

selective fading channels with imperfect channel estimation. IEEE

10-3 Transactions on Vehicular Technology, 65(1), 427–434.
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the data detection. The CRLB was acquired as a benchmark
on estimation performance. Furthermore, a tight approxima-
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to obtain closed-form expressions of outage probability and
BEP of M-PSK and M-QAM modulations. We showed via
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ters, 25(8), 1246–1250. of Mascara in the department of
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codes in rayleigh fading channels. IEEE Transactions on Commu- Digital Signal Processing Labora-
nications, 57(5), 1242–1245. tory in Sidi Bel Abbes University.
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26. Han, S., Ahn, S., Oh, E., & Hong, D. (2009). Effect of channel honor from Electronic department
estimation error on BER performance in cooperative transmission. of Sidi Bel Abbes University,
IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, 58(4), 2083–2088. Algeria in 1995, 1999 and 2006
27. Weinstein, S. B., & Ebert, P. M. (1971). Data transmission by respectively. He joined Sidi Bel
frequency division multiplexing using the discrete Fourier trans- Abbes University as assistant
form. IEEE Transactions on Communication Technology, COM-19, professor in 2000. From 2005
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28. Gore, D. A., Heath, R. W., & Paulraj, A. J. (2002). Transmit selec- OAE Department of University
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29. Li, Y., Cimini, Jr, L. J., & Himayat, N. (December 2008). Perfor- Department of ENST of Paris,
mance analysis of space–time block coding with co-channel MIMO France. His research interests are
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30. Lu, J., Letaief, K. B., Chuang, J. C.-I., & Liou, M. L. (1999). M- multicarrier systems, performance analysis and multiuser detection.
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In IEEE ICASSP communications. Master degree and Ph.D. degree
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for antenna selection using orthogonal space–time block codes. tronics from Sidi Bel Abbes
IEEE Communications Letters, 10, 704–706. University, Algeria in 2001, 2004
33. Sriharsha, M. R., Dama, S., & Kuchi, K. (2017). A complete cell and 2016 respectively. In 2018
search and synchronization in LTE. EURASIP Journal on Wireless he joined Mascara University as
Communications and Networking, 2017, 101. an assistant professor of com-
34. Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA); Base Sta- munications engineering and
tion (BS) radio transmission and reception (3GPP TS 36.104 information theory. His current
version 11.2.0 Release 11). www.3GPP.org. research interests include wireless
communications signal and image
processing.
Publisher’s Note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to juris-
dictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

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M. Besseghier et al.

Iyad Dayoub (M’07–SM’15)

received the B.Eng. degree in
telecommunications and elec-
tronics from Syria in 1993, the
M.A.Sc. degree in electrical
engineering from the National
Polytechnic Institute of Lor-
raine, Vandoeuvre-lès-Nancy,
France, in 1997, and the Ph.D.
degree from the Institute of
Electronics, Microelectronics,
and Nanotechnology (IEMN),
University of Valenciennes and
Hainaut-Cambresis (UVHC),
Valenciennes, France, in 2001.
He is a Professor of Communications Engineering. He was with the
Alcatel Business Systems Alcatel, Colombes, Paris, in 1999. He is
currently a Professor with the Department of Optics Acoustics and
Electronics (DOAE), the IEMN, UVHC. His current research inter-
ests include wireless communications, high-speed communications,
cognitive radio, and RF transmission over fiber optics. From 2007
to 2014, he was a member of the National Council of Universities
(CNU, France) in the area of Electrical engineering, electronics, pho-
tonics and systems, and Adjunct Professor at Concordia University,
Montreal (2010–2014).

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