Channel Estimation Scheme for a RAKE Receiver with Fractional Sampling in IEEE802.11b WLAN System

The IEEE802.11b WLAN standard employs directsequence/spread-spectrum (DS/SS) modulation. With a fractional sampling RAKE receiver, it is possible to achieve diversity and reduce the BER in DS/SS communication. In order to realize the diversity through fractional sampling, the impulse response of the channel must be estimated. In this paper, a channel estimation scheme for a RAKE receiver with fractional sampling in IEEE802.11b WLAN system is investigated through a computer simulation and an experiment. In order to estimate the impulse response of the channel, a pseudo-inverse matrix with a threshold is employed. Numerical results indicate that the channel can be estimated with an optimum threshold in both the simulation and the experiment. key words: IEEE802.11b, channel estimation, fractional sampling, DS/SS, pseudo-inverse matrix