Design of isotropic orthogonal transform algorithm-based multicarrier systems with blind channel estimation

Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) technique has gained increasing popularity in both wired and wireless communication systems. However, in the conventional OFDM systems the insertion of a cyclic prefix (CP) and the transmission of periodic training sequences for purpose of channel estimation decrease the system’s spectral efficiency. As an alternative to OFDM, isotropic orthogonal transform algorithm (IOTA)-based multicarrier system adopts a proper pulse shaping with good time and frequency localisation properties to avoid interference and maintain orthogonality in real field among sub-carriers without the use of CP. In this study, the authors propose linearly precoded IOTA-based multicarrier systems to achieve blind channel estimation by utilising the structure of auto-correlation and cross-correlation matrices introduced by precoding. The results show that the proposed IOTA-based multicarrier systems achieve better power and spectral efficiency compared with the conventional OFDM systems.