Analysis and Algorithm for Non-Pilot-Aided Channel Length Estimation in Wireless Communications

Channel estimation and equalization techniques are crucial for the ubiquitous wireless communication systems. Conventional receivers for most wireless standards preset the channel length to the maximal expected duration of the channel impulse response for the adopted channel estimation and equalization algorithms. The excessive channel length often significantly increases the implementational complexity of the wireless receivers and leads to the redundant information which would induce the additional estimation errors. Moreover, such a scheme does not allow the dynamic memory allocation for variable channel lengths.