Joint channel estimation and turbo equalisation for MIMO-OFDM-IM systems

Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) communications are frequently employed to improve the transmitted data rate and the link quality. Index modulated orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM-IM) improves the error rate performance and the peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) compared with those of the conventional OFDM system due to the activation of partial subcarriers. The MIMO OFDM-IM can transmit additional information bits via the indices of active subcarriers. Also, in order to reduce the transmission power of the OFDM system, the MIMO OFDM-IM scheme can be employed to approach the demanded data transmission rate and the error rate performance. Multiple-input multiple-output orthogonal frequency division multiplexing index modulation (MIMO-OFDM-IM) is an effective multicarrier transmission scheme and can be proposed as an alternative to conventional MIMO-OFDM system. In this scheme, OFDM-IM is combined with MIMO transmission to take the benefits of these two techniques. In this paper, we propose a joint channel estimation and turbo equalisation receiver for MIMO-OFDM-IM system. Some simulation examples are given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed receiver.