A novel channel estimation based on spread pilots for terrestrial digital video broadcasting

Abstract: In this paper, we propose a novel channel estimation technique based on spread pilots for digital video broadcasting. This technique consists in adding a linear preceding function before the OFDM modulation and dedicating one of the preceding sequence to transmit the pilot symbols for the channel estimation. The merits of this technique are its simplicity, its flexibility, and the gains in terms of spectral efficiency and useful bit rate obtained compared to the classical pilot based estimation schemes used in DVB standards. The performance evaluated over realistic channel models, shows the efficiency of this technique which turns out to be a promising channel estimation technique for the future terrestrial video broadcasting systems.