Cumulant based Blind Channel Estimation and Equalization in Aeronautical Telemetry Channel

Abstract

Channel estimation and equalization plays a significant role in a wireless communication system as it is useful to nullify the inter-symbol interference. In this paper, we present an improved blind channel estimation and equalization method based on 4th order cumulant to overcome the distortion caused in an aeronautical telemetry channel due to multipath and fading. The proposed algorithm exploits the transmitted signal statistical characteristics without burdening the transmitter with training overhead. A gradient type optimization algorithm is implemented for the fourth order cumulant equalization algorithm to find the maximization of the objective function. The effectiveness of the new blind equalizer is compared with conventional Least Mean Square (LMS) based adaptive equalizer where channel coefficients are known apriori. The Bit error rate plot using the actual coefficients and estimated coefficients of channel are compared. The performance of the proposed method is demonstrated by computer simulation.