Robust blind channel estimation algorithm for linear STBC systems using fourth order cumulant matrices

A novel blind channel estimation algorithm, based on fourth-order cumulant matrices, is proposed and applied to linear Space–Time Block Coded (STBC) for Multiple Input Multiple Output systems. Contrary to subspace and Second-Order Statistics (SOS) methods, the presented approach estimates the channel matrix without any modification of the transmitter. It takes advantage of the statistical independence of the signals in front of the space–time encoding. In this paper, the presented algorithm estimates the channel matrix by minimizing a cost function based on the higher cumulant matrices after Zero-Forcing equalization to mitigate the computational complexity and improve the performance. We employ the proposed method to the STBC systems including Spatial Multiplexing, Orthogonal, quasi-Orthogonal and Non-Orthogonal STBC systems. Symbol error rate and Normalized Mean Square Error simulations of the proposed algorithm are shown for a different number of users, signal to noise ratios and different number of symbols per user in comparison with subspace and Second-Order Statistics (SOS) methods. The results show that the presented method performs well and outperforms other methods in estimating the channel matrix from the received data. Moreover, the proposed method presents high convergence speed in estimating the channel matrix.