QR factorization based blind channel identification and equalization with second-order statistics

Most eigenstructure-based blind channel identification and equalization algorithms with second-order statistics need SVD or EVD of the correlation matrix of the received signal. In this paper, we address new algorithms based on QR factorization of the received signal directly without calculating the correlation matrix. This renders the QR factorization-based algorithms more robust against ill-conditioned channels, i.e., those channels with almost common zeros among the subchannels. First, we present a block algorithm that performs the QR factorization of the received data matrix as a whole. Then, a recursive algorithm is developed based on the QR factorization by updating a rank-revealing ULV decomposition. Compared with existing algorithms in the same category, our algorithms are computationally more efficient. The computation in each recursion of the recursive algorithm is on the order of O(m²) if only equalization is required, where m is the dimension of the received signal vector. Our recursive algorithm preserves the fast convergence property of the subspace algorithms, thus converging faster than other adaptive algorithms such as the super-exponential algorithm with comparable computational complexities. Moreover, our proposed algorithms do not require noise variance estimation. Numerical simulations demonstrate the good performance of the proposed algorithms.