Digital signal with multiple reference blocks for channel estimation, channel estimation methods and corresponding receivers

摘要

A digital signal is organized in consecutive data trains each comprising a predetermined number of successive symbols, each of said data trains comprising at least two distinct reference blocks for the estimation of said channel, distributed among the useful symbols representing the source signal to be transmitted, each of said reference blocks being formed by at least one reference symbol known to the receiver and/or identifiable by said receiver. The reference symbols present in the reference blocks may be explicit reference symbols that are fixed and known a priori by said receiver and/or implicit reference symbols produced by the links generated between the useful symbols by an encoding operation. Also disclosed are channel estimation methods implementing an estimation-maximization algorithm and/or using a combination of predetermined basic functions, with a bandwidth greater than or equal to the Doppler power spectrum of said signal.