Indexed-channel estimation under frequency and time-selective fading channels in high-mobility systems

Index modulation (IM) techniques have been employed in different communication systems to improve bandwidth efficiency by carrying additional information bits. In high-mobility communication systems and under both time-selective and frequency-selective fading channels with Doppler spread, channel variations can be tracked by employing pilot-aided channel estimation with minimum mean-squared error estimation. However, inserting pilot symbols among information symbols reduces the system's spectral efficiency in pilot-aided channel estimation schemes. We propose pilot-aided channel estimation with zero-pilot symbols and an energy detection scheme to tackle this issue. Part of the information bit-stream is conveyed by the indices of zero-pilot symbols leading to an increase in the system's spectral efficiency. We used an energy detector at the receiver to detect the transmitted zero-pilot symbols. This paper examines the impacts of diversity order on the zero-pilot symbol detection error probability and the mean-squared of error estimation. The impacts of pilot symbols number and the zero-pilot symbol number on the mean-squared error of the minimum mean-squared error (MMSE) estimator and the system error performance are also investigated in this paper.