Kalman filter and semi-blind technique-based channel estimation for coded STBC multi-antenna set-ups in faded wireless channels

Alamouti's space-time block coding STBC with diversity gains provide improved performance in faded channels. Alamouti's transmit diversity scheme, however, relies on the availability of accurate channel state information CSI. If the assistance of channel estimation is considered, the overall performance can be further enhanced. In this work, we report the performance of three separate approaches to deal with coded multi-antenna setups. These are STBC Coded MISO-MIMO Set-up with BPSK and QPSK, pilot assisted channel estimation with Walsh-Hadamard code and semi-blind channel estimation using Kalman filter KF. The first two proposed techniques are able to obtain an error performance closer to a known CSI in severely faded channel. The semi-blind estimation technique using KF with Walsh-Hadamard coded pilot symbols incorporates orthogonality to facilitate decoupling of multiple data blocks after STBC decoding. The simulated results prove the effectiveness of the channel estimators in time varying Rayleigh faded channel.