sensors

Article
An Improved Channel Estimation Technique for IEEE
802.11p Standard in Vehicular Communications
Tong Wang 1 , Azhar Hussain 1, * , Yue Cao 2, * , and Sangirov Gulomjon 3
1 College of Information and Communication Engineering, Harbin Engineering University,
Harbin 150001, China; wangtong@hrbeu.edu.cn
2 Department of Computer and Information Sciences, Northumbria University,
Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 8ST, UK
3 Nokia Shanghai Bell Innovative Park, Hangzhou 310014, China; gulomjon.sangirov@nokia-sbell.com
* Correspondence: engrazr@hrbeu.edu.cn (A.H.); yue.cao@northumbria.ac.uk (Y.C.)




Received: 4 November 2018; Accepted: 21 December 2018; Published: 28 December 2018


Abstract: IEEE 802.11p based Dedicated Short-Range Communication (DSRC) is considered a

potential wireless technology to enable transportation safety and traffic efficiency. A major challenge
in the development of IEEE 802.11p technology is ensuring communication reliability in highly
dynamic Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) environments. The design of IEEE 802.11p does not have a sufficient
number of training symbols in the time domain and pilot carriers in the frequency domain to enable
accurate estimation of rapidly varying V2V channels. The channel estimation of IEEE 802.11p is
preamble based, which cannot guarantee a suitable equalization in urban and highway scenarios,
especially for longer length data packets. This limitation has been investigated by some research
works, which suggest that one major challenge is determining an accurate means of updating channel
estimate over the course of packet length while adhering to the standard. The motivation behind this
article is to overcome this challenge. We have proposed an improved Constructed Data Pilot (iCDP)
scheme which adheres to the standard and constructs data pilots by considering the correlation
characteristics between adjacent data symbols in time domain and adjacent subcarriers in frequency
domain. It is in contrast to previous schemes which considered the correlation in the time domain.
The results have shown that the proposed scheme performs better than previous schemes in terms of
bit error rate (BER) and root-mean-square error (RMSE).

Keywords: IEEE 802.11p; Vehicular Networks; Intelligent Transportation Systems; constructed data
pilots; vehicle-to-vehicle

1. Introduction
Dedicated Short-Range Communication (DSRC) is considered a promising short-range wireless
communication standard for vehicular communications [1]. Among other benefits, DSRC can provide
cooperative driving-safety using Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) communication. Various DSRC applications
include: Cooperative forward collision warning [2], impending road hazards, an upcoming traffic
jam, assistance in adverse weather, blind spot warning, traffic light optimal speed advisory, and
remote wireless diagnosis [3]. However, ensuring communication reliability is very important for
these mission-critical applications under highly dynamic V2V communication channels. The physical
(PHY) layer design of DSRC system is inherited from the IEEE 802.11a standard, by reducing the signal
bandwidth from 20 MHz to 10 MHz and operating frequency to 5.9 GHz. The main reason behind this
inheritance is to reduce the manufacturing cost of the DSRC devices by making slight changes in the
802.11a based systems, which are readily available in market.

Sensors 2019, 19, 98; doi:10.3390/s19010098 www.mdpi.com/journal/sensors

Sensors 2019, 19, 98 2 of 22

The 802.11a standard was originally developed for relatively stationary indoor environments.
However, V2V wireless channel is extremely challenging for signal propagation due to: (1 Vehicular
mobility which leads to a short channel coherence time and (2 the presence of mobile and stationary
scatterers e.g., other vehicles and buildings, which results in a narrow coherence bandwidth. Recent
channel sounding measurements have indicated that the coherence bandwidth is about 410 to
820 KHz and coherence time is about 0.3 to 1.0 ms in V2V channels, which are in direct contrast
to the static indoor environments (a coherence time of 25 ms and coherence bandwidth of 1 to
3 MHz) [4]. The performance of the IEEE 802.11p system would significantly suffer due to degradation
of transmitted signal waveforms in V2V environments. As a well-known fact, channel estimation
plays a vital role in the design of any wireless communication system. A precisely estimated channel
response (CR) is critical for the follow-up equalization, demodulation, and decoding [5]. Generally, the
accuracy of channel estimation decides the reliability of wireless communication system. Therefore, in
the V2V environment, the primary challenge is to determine accurate means of updating the channel
estimate over the course of a packet length while adhering to the standard.
Besides IEEE 802.11p, the millimeter-wave communication standard IEEE 802.11ad is also
emerging as a preferred near-field communication system for V2V. IEEE 802.11ad is centered at
the 60 GHz radio frequency band and provides transmission bandwidth that is several GHz wide.
The receivers designed to process IEEE 802.11ad waveforms employ very high rate analog-to-digital
converters, and thus reducing the receiver sampling rate is useful. In a state-of-the-art channel
estimation scheme [6], the authors have mitigated the problem of low-rate channel estimation in
IEEE 802.11ad by harnessing sparsity in the channel impulse response. They investigated recovery
performance through RMSE between the actual and estimated channel. The decrease in RMSE results
in a performance improvement at the PHY layer. The effect of this improvement traverses its way up
to the vehicular communication stack [7], and leads to a better network performance.
Recently, two approaches of channel estimation have been investigated for the IEEE 802.11p.
The first approach demands modification in the structure of the IEEE 802.11p [8–13], while the second
approach does not require such modification [1,5,13–16]. In the IEEE 802.11p, channel estimation is
performed by transmitting two predefined Long Training Symbols (LTSs) at the beginning of each
packet. The channel is then estimated once for each packet, and this estimate is used to equalize the
entire packet. IEEE 802.11p does not restrict the packet length. A channel estimate can quickly become
less reliable for longer packets in V2V communications. Moreover, the IEEE 802.11p only allows the
use of four pilot subcarriers (intended for residual frequency offset correction). These pilot subcarriers
are not spaced closely enough to sample the variations of the channel in the frequency domain, which
also contributes to performance degradation in V2V communications.
The main motivation behind the proposed scheme is to track the channel variations in time and
frequency domain. In [5], authors have investigated that channel estimation in the IEEE 802.11p
standard can be improved by exploiting the correlation characteristics between the adjacent symbols of
the orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) based data packet via constructing data pilots
in the time domain. In this article, we have investigated that the adjacent subcarriers also have strong
correlation characteristics in a data packet. We have employed these correlation characteristics in time
and frequency domain to construct the reference data pilots for the channel estimation. In this way,
an improved channel equalization can be achieved with a little complexity. The main contributions of
this paper are listed here:

• We have proposed an end-to-end channel estimation and equalization scheme for the IEEE 802.11p
standard. It does not require modifications in the structure of the standard and keeps a balance
between computational complexity and BER performance of the overall system.
• In the channel estimation process, we have also utilized the correlation characteristics between
adjacent subcarriers in the frequency domain, as well as between adjacent OFDM symbols in
time domain.
Sensors 2019, 19, 98 3 of 22

• The simulation results have demonstrated the performance improvement over CDP and spatial
temporal-averaging (STA) schemes for V2V communications.
• We have also presented an intuitive visualization of the V2V channel model which is used in the
evaluation of the proposed scheme.

The paper is organized as follows. Section 2 describes the current system model of the IEEE
802.11p transmitter and the channel. Section 3 gives an overview of the current channel estimation
schemes for the IEEE 802.11p. Section 4 briefly describes the receiver and the integration of the
proposed scheme. Section 5 presents the simulation results and analysis of the proposed iCDP and
Section 6 discusses two important issues along with future work suggestions. Finally, Section 7 draws
the main conclusions derived from this work.

2. System Model of the IEEE 802.11p

2.1. OFDM Frame of IEEE 802.11p

Figure 1 shows the structure of an OFDM frame of the IEEE 802.11p. The IEEE 802.11p physical
layer is nearly the same as IEEE 802.11a. The symbol duration in 802.11p is twice that of 802.11a.
The data carried by the closely spaced orthogonal frequency subcarriers helps in improving the
spectrum efficiency under harsh conditions of the vehicular data transmission channel. It can support
various data rates from 3 to 27 Mbps depending on different modulation and coding schemes,
as summarized in Table 1. The Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) size is of 64 points. The packet starts
with a preamble that includes Short Training Symbols (STSs) and LTSs, the Signal Field, and the Data
Section. The ”Signal Field” provides information related to the type of modulation, coding rate, etc.
The Data Section contains information about the transmitted data.

Two STS Two LTS Signal Field OFDM symbol duration = 8µs

16µs 16µs 8µs 14 subcarriers spacing

OFDM frame height in terms of frequency = 10MHz

Four Phase tracking pilots

Null subcarrier
Frequency

Time OFDM Data Section

Figure 1. Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) frame format of the IEEE 802.11p.
Sensors 2019, 19, 98 4 of 22

Coarse synchronization is achieved by the ten STSs which are placed at the beginning of each
packet. The two LTSs that follow Guard Interval (GI) of STSs are used for the channel estimation and
fine synchronization. The GI is placed at this location to cope with the InterSymbol Interference ISI.
The Signal Section has only one OFDM symbol. There is no specific limit on the number of OFDM
symbols in the Data Section. The block diagram of the IEEE 802.11p transmitter model is shown in
Figure 2.

Table 1. IEEE 802.11p standard parameters.

Parameter Values
FFT size 64
FFT period 6.4 µs
Symbol duration 8.0 µs
GI duration 1.6 µs
Total subcarriers 52
Pilot subcarriers 4
Data subcarriers 48
Code Rate 1/2, 2/3, 3/4
Modulation Schemes BPSK, QPSK, 16QAM, 64QAM
Bit Rate 3, 4.5, 6, 9, 12, 18, 24, 27
Frequency spacing of subcarriers 156.25 KHz
Error correction coding k = 7 (64 states) convolution code
Bandwidth 10 MHz

2.2. Transmitter Model

The transmitter consists of a convolutional encoder for the forward error correction, a puncturing
module for higher data rates, the interleaver to oppose burst errors. Then a modulation module is
added for the selection of different schemes. The 4 phase tracking pilots are inserted to the 48 data
subcarriers in the pilot insertion module. These phase tracking pilots help in nullifying the phase
rotations that are caused by the frequency offsets. Additionally, a total of 11 subcarriers and a null
subcarrier is also added to complete a set of 64 subcarriers. After that, an Inverse FFT (IFFT) module is
placed to transform the data to the time domain and then a GI and preamble modules are placed to
make packet ready for transmission.

802.11p Packet Waveform Generation

Transmission
PSDU to Channel
Convolutional Pucturing Interleaving Modulation Pilots Insertion Appending Appending
IFFT
Coding Section Section Section Section Section GI Preamble

Figure 2. Transmitter block diagram of IEEE 802.11p.

2.3. Channel Model

Recently, the V2V channel model characteristics have been explored in the literature [17–28].
Table 2 summarizes different characteristics of the seven realistic channel models [25,28] of vehicular
communication environments. A classical Tapped Delay Line (TDL) channel model, namely, wide
stationary uncorrelated scattering (WSSUS), was proposed by [29]. Another closely related channel
model is known as non-WSSUS, which is proposed by [25]. These models are accepted as standard
channel model for the IEEE 802.11p based systems. These realistic channel models were obtained
through a channel measurement campaign which was performed in the metropolitan Atlanta, Georgia,
USA. The campaign consisted of six different scenarios. The V2V or (VTV) Expressway Oncoming,
the VTV Urban Canyon Oncoming, Roadside To the Vehicle (RTV) Suburban street, the RTV Expressway,
the VTV Expressway Same Direction With Wall (SDWW), and the RTV Urban Canyon.
Sensors 2019, 19, 98 5 of 22

Further experiments were done by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI)
and a comprehensive vehicular channel model was formulated [28]. This channel model is known as
HIgh PERformance radio Local Area Network (HIPERLAN)/2 and it is also available in Matlab 2016
version. This model has a delay profile called Model-E, that represents Non-Line-Of-Sight (NLOS)
conditions with an average delay spread of 250 ns. In CDP scheme, the time-variant characteristics of
channel models [25] have been employed, however its impact on the overall OFDM performance due
to intercarrier interference under HIPERLAN/2 SISO fading channel model [28] still needs further
investigations. We have investigated this severe channel model for the proposed channel estimation.
We have also tested the proposed scheme for the VTV Express oncoming channel model as shown in
Table 2. The time and frequency variations have been analyzed in the paper. We will use a short-term
HIPERLAN-E for the HIPERLAN/2 Model-E channel model in this article.

Table 2. Characteristics of the vehicular channel models.

Channel Model Doppler Shift Multipaths Velocity Average Path Gains (dB) Path Delays (ns)
(Hz) (km/h)
VTV Express Oncoming 1000–1200 11 104 [0, 0, 0, −6.3, −6.3, −25.1, −25.1, [0, 1, 2, 100, 101, 200,
−25.1, −22.7, −22.7, −22.7] 201, 202, 300, 301, 302]
RTV Expressway 600–700 12 104 [0, 0, 0, −9.3, −9.3, −9.3, [0, 1, 2, 100, 101, 102,
−20.3, −20.3, −21.3, −21.3, 200, 201, 300, 301,
−28.8, −28.8] 400, 401]
VTV Express SDWW 900–1150 12 104 [0, 0, −11.2, −11.2, −19, −21.9, [0, 1, 100, 101, 200,
−25.3, −25.3, −24.4, −28.0, 300, 400, 401, 500, 600,
−26.1, −26.1] 700, 701]
RTV Urban Canyon 300 12 32–48 [0, 0, 0, −11.5, −11.5, −11.5, [0, 1, 2, 100, 101, 102,
−19.0, −19.0, −25.6, −25.6, 200, 201, 300, 301,
−28.1, −28.1] 500, 501]
RTV Suburban street 300–500 12 32–48 [0, 0, −9.3, −9.3, −14, −14, [0, 1, 100, 101, 200,
−18, −18, −19.4, −24.9, 201, 300, 301, 400, 500,
−27.5, −29.8] 600, 700]
VTV Urban Canyon Oncoming 400–500 12 32–48 [0, 0, −10, −10, −10, −17.8, [0, 1, 100, 101, 102,
−17.8, −17.8, −21.1, −21.1, 200, 201, 202, 300, 301,
−26.3, −26.3] 400, 401]
HIPERLAN−E 1000–1200 18 109.83 [−4.9, −5.1, −5.2, −0.8, −1.3, [0, 10, 20, 40, 70, 100,
−1.9, −0.3, −1.2, −2.1, 0.0, 140, 190, 240, 320, 430,
−1.9, −2.8, −5.4, −7.3, −10.6, 560, 710, 880, 1070,
−13.4, −17.4, −20.9] 1280, 1510, 1760]

3. Overview of Current Channel Estimation Schemes

Recently, a number of channel estimation schemes have been devised for the IEEE 802.11p.
The pilot symbols placement in the time-frequency plane is very important for the estimation of
the channel. However, the placement of pilots in the current IEEE 802.11p standard appears to be
insufficient for tracking under the rapid motion of vehicles. One of the main reasons is that the two
LTSs cannot provide enough information in the frequency domain. Two kinds of channel estimation
scenarios are discussed in the literature. The first scenario demands modification in the IEEE 802.11p
standard and the second scenario does not require such modification. The IEEE 802.11a chips are low
cost and readily available in the market. These chips can be modified in a cost-efficient way if we
follow the second kind of scenario.

3.1. Scenario 1: Modification in IEEE 802.11p

3.1.1. The Midamble Based Channel Estimation Scheme (MBCE)

This work was proposed in [10,11] to mitigate the effects of time-varying channels. The midamble
pilots are placed periodically in the data symbols. If the number of these midamble sequences is
sufficient, then there is no limit on the length of Data section. At first, the channel estimation is
performed based on the two LTS, and then the estimated channel response is used to equalize the next
data symbols. Afterward, the midamble pilots are used to update and track the channel, using the
Sensors 2019, 19, 98 6 of 22

same channel estimation procedure as that in the case of LTS. The ratio of the number of data symbols
and the number of midambles is called c, and the simulation results have shown that a minor value of
c can effectively enhance the performance. However, improvement in the performance is achieved
at the expense of spectrum efficiency, which results in lower transmission rates. In addition to this,
the optimized selection of parameter c is still not resolved.

3.1.2. Time Domain Least Square Estimation (TDLSE) Scheme

Another scheme known as TDLSE was proposed in [12,13] for the tracking of the time-varying
channel. The main idea behind this scheme was reported by [30] and then was further exploited in a
different literature [31–33]. The authors have proposed to insert a Zadoff-Chu sequence or Pseudo
Noise (PN) sequence into the prefix section for further improving the channel estimation. The channel
impulse response is initially derived by the Least Square (LS) estimation of the received signal and the
transmitted matrix which consists of the replaced prefix, known as Zadoff-Chu sequence. In addition
to that, the estimated channel response is averaged with the adjacent symbols. In the end, the LS
equalization is performed and the simulation results show that both sequences based TDLSE can
achieve significant improvement in the channel estimation as compared to other schemes.

3.2. Scenario 2: Remain the Structure of the IEEE 802.11p

Definition 1. LS Estimation: The commonly used channel estimation scheme for the IEEE 802.11p is LS
estimation [1]. It combines the two received LTSs, which are represented by R T1 (k) and R T2 (k). Let X(k)
represents the transmitted LTS. The channel response can be derived by Equation (1).

R T1 (k) + R T2 (k )
H (k) = (1)
2X (k )
This channel response H (k) can be used for the equalization of the subsequent symbols, with the
assumption that the channel will remain constant during the symbol duration. However, the channel
response for the IEEE 802.11p does not remain constant for the symbol duration, and LS estimation
cannot provide good results in V2V channels.

3.2.1. Wiener Filter (WF) Based Scheme

The LS estimation is not sufficient for the rapidly varying channel conditions. Therefore, a work
in [14] proposes a Wiener filter based estimation. The Wiener filter is deployed between the channel
estimation and equalization. It searches the optimal coefficients to minimize the mean square error
(MSE) of the channel response. The design of the Wiener filter is very important in order to gain
channel estimation quality. The Wiener filter is based on three parameters such as, (1) the estimated
SNR as described in [34]; (2) maximum excess delay τmax ; and (3) the power delay profile (PDP), which
is represented as P(τ ). In the vehicular time-varying channels, the derivation of these parameters is
complex and quite a challenging task, especially the τmax and P(τ ). One simple approximation is to
consider the value of τmax equal to 1.6 µs, which is the time taken by the GI. The shape of PDP can
be assumed as rectangular or exponentially decaying. It is observed through the simulation results
that the Wiener filter application can achieve better MSE, which eventually improve the packet error
rate (PER). However, the assumptions related to the value of τmax and the shape of PDP can lead to
suboptimal performance due to the uncertainties due to these assumptions.

3.2.2. Generalized Discrete Prolate Spheroidal (GDPS) Sequences Based Scheme

Another iterative approach is followed by [15], that estimates the channel based on the generalized
DPS sequences. Theoretically, the DPS sequences can tighten the design of subspace and the iterative
estimation mechanism provides the pilot information. This concept was investigated in [35]. The DPS
sequences minimize the MSE by tightening the subspace. The generalized DPS sequences can simplify
Sensors 2019, 19, 98 7 of 22

the channel estimation and it only requires DSP coefficients. The iterative algorithm requires higher
computational complexity and in order to deal with such problem, an enhanced pilot symbol pattern
was proposed as well in [35]. The overall kernel is postamble appended after the Data section. However,
such reduction in computational complexity will lead to a decrease in the efficiency and incompatibility
with the standard.

3.2.3. Spectral-Temporal Averaging (STA) Based Scheme

Another excellent scheme [36] that addresses the challenges of time-varying nature of V2V channel
is known as STA. The STA is actually an approach to estimate the dynamic nature of such kind of
communication channels. If i is the index of OFDM data symbol, then (i − 1) th estimated channel
response which is represented by HSTA,i−1 (k ), equalizes the received data symbol SR,i (k ) and given by
Equation (2).
SR,i (k)
ŜT,i (k) = (2)
HSTA,i−1 (k)
Where HSTA,0 (k) is the channel response of the 0th data symbol. It is obtained from Equation (1) by
using the LTSs. A modulation scheme dependent demmapper transforms ŜT,i (k) to X̂i (k). The phase
tracking pilot subcarriers at X̂i (k) with k = −21, −7, 7, 21 are also combined with the frequency domain
values in the standard. Let Hi (k) be the initial estimate of the channel obtained by Equation (3).

SR,i (k)
Hi (k) = (3)
X̂i (k)

Hi (k ) is derived from the knowledge of data symbols, however, these data symbols might be
incorrectly mapped especially at the lower Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) conditions. Therefore, [36]
considered that averaging in both the frequency and time domains can help in improving accuracy.
The averaging in the frequency domain is given by Equation (4).

λ= β
Hupdate (k) = ∑ ωλ Hi (k + λ) (4)
λ=− β

The expression 2β + 1 represents the subcarriers that are averaged. The set of weighting
coefficients ωλ has unit sum and is equal to ωλ = 1/(2β + 1). The averaging in the time domain is
given by Equation (5).

1 1
HSTA,i (k) = (1 − )H (k) + Hupdate (k) (5)
α STA,i−1 α
The updating parameter α is related to the Doppler spread. The values of α and β parameters
are dependent on the types of vehicular channels. Significant accuracy can be achieved by adjusting
these values according to the knowledge of the vehicular channel environment. One source of such
knowledge is through the Global Positioning System (GPS), as discussed in [36]. However, such a
kind of information is practically quite hard to obtain. It is was investigated that fixed values of these
parameters can be a good balance of algorithm simplicity and an acceptable performance degradation.
Another channel tracking technique [16] performed the initial channel estimation through the
preamble just like the midamble base estimation scheme. The next symbols are then estimated in
a specific order, that includes the equalization, decision direct estimation, and smoothing process.
The channel tracking algorithm in the decision directed scheme is the same as Equations (2) and (3).
However, at lower values of SNR, the wrong decisions can propagate and cause an error in the channel
tracking process. Therefore, a smoothing process has been proposed to mitigate the part of estimation
noise. The performance improvement is depicted in the simulation results. This smoothing operation
brought a huge complexity into the computation process, which is mainly caused by the multiplication
of larger size matrices. This computational complexity was reduced by two algorithms, known as
Sensors 2019, 19, 98 8 of 22

lossless complexity reduction and lossy complexity reduction. The lossless complexity reduction
deployed the Singular Value Decomposition (SVD) to lower the burden of matrix multiplication.
The lossy complexity reduction, on the other hand, ignores some subcarriers to reduce complexity
with little degradation in the performance.

3.2.4. Pseudo-Pilot Based Scheme

Besides TDLSE scheme, a pseudo pilot based channel estimation scheme was proposed in [13].
The basic algorithm of the pseudo-pilot based scheme was proposed in [37,38] and the pseudo pilots
were assumed as true pilots. This scheme is based on the regression polynomial to estimate the
channel response [39]. Further, in [39,40], the least square fitting was investigated to calculate the
regression polynomial coefficients. The algorithm of pseudo pilot scheme is based on three steps,
such as (1) precalculation; (2) real-time estimation; and (3) channel tracking. The first step needs
predefinition of the regression polynomial and the prescoring of the related matrix. The second step
at first calculates the channel impulse response on the pilot subcarriers, and then it estimates the
complete channel impulse response. Afterward, this complete response is used to derive a better
channel response by using a scheme that is similar to the decision directed (DD) scheme. The third and
final step is an improvement of the pseudo-pilot algorithms [37,38]. The initial coefficients are derived
from the preamble and then the pilots are deployed to track the channel variations in the adjacent
symbols with performance improvement in the pseudo-pilot algorithm.

3.2.5. DFT Based Scheme

To obtain a trade-off between performance and complexity in vehicular communication, a Discrete
Fourier Transform (DFT) based channel estimation technique was introduced in [41]. In this scheme,
the channel response obtained by LS estimation is converted back to the time domain by taking its
inverse Fourier transform. In this scheme, the coefficients for the maximum channel delay are selected
after ignoring the noise-containing coefficients of the time domain channel response. These selected
components are then returned back to the frequency domain and the equalization is performed with
the simulation results better than LS estimation. This scheme performs better than LS, STA, and CDP
under the conditions when the maximum Doppler shift is under 10 Hz, however, as the Doppler shift
increases above 10 Hz, its performance degrades severely.

3.2.6. CDP Based Scheme

In [5], the preamble-based channel response is utilized to construct data pilots in subsequent
data symbols. The high correlation characteristics of the channel response between the adjacent data
symbols are employed by exploiting the four-phase tracking pilots to achieve better performance than
STA. The estimation process in the CDP scheme is composed of five steps, including (1) equalization;
(2) constructing data pilot; (3) LS estimation; (4) demapping; and (5) comparison. The first three
steps in the CDP scheme are similar to the STA scheme. In the next two steps, the high correlation
characteristic is utilized to achieve performance improvement over STA and decision directed schemes,
especially in the higher SNR region.
Table 3 presents the comparison of the discussed schemes. The Computational Complexity Level
is represented by CCL, and the BER Performance Level is represented by PL. CCL 0.1 means very
low computational complexity (e.g., LS) and CCL 0.5 means very high computational complexity
(e.g., GDPS and DD). Please note that this grading is for understanding the difference between the
computational complexities of various schemes. PL 0.1 means excellent performance and 0.5 means a
severe performance degradation (e.g., LS). The terms SM and CSI denote System Modification and
Channel State Information respectively in Table 3.
Sensors 2019, 19, 98 9 of 22

Table 3. Comparison of the proposed scheme with existing schemes for the Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V)
channel Estimation.

Scheme SM Requirement CSI Requirement CCL PL Compatibility

STA No Yes 0.3 0.2 Invariant
MBCE Yes No 0.2 0.1–0.3 Reduced
TDLSE Yes No 0.2 0.2 Reduced
LS No No 0.1 0.5 Invariant
WF No Yes 0.3 0.3 Invariant
GDPS No Yes 0.5 0.3 Invariant
Improved GDPS Yes Yes 0.4 0.3 Invariant
DD No Yes 0.5 0.3 Invariant
DD Lossless reduction No Yes 0.4 0.3 Invariant
DD Lossy reduction No Yes 0.5 0.3–0.4 Invariant
Pseudo-pilot No Yes 0.5 0.3–0.4 Invariant
CDP No Yes 0.2 0.1–0.2 Invariant
Proposed No Yes 0.3 0.1 Invariant

4. The Proposed Scheme

The block diagram of the receiver is shown in Figure 3. The pink shaded box depicts the proposed
channel estimator. It is placed after the 64 point FFT block. Table 4 presents the timing parameters
used in the simulation of the proposed scheme, and they are in accordance with Section 18 of the IEEE
standard 802.11p [1].

Packet Detection Timing Proposed

and Synchronization and FFT 64 Point Channel Estimation
Coarse Frequency Fine Frequency
Correction Correction
Data Recovery Section

PSDU
Viterbi
Demodulation Depuncture Deinterleaver
Offset Known Decoder
Channel Delay

Figure 3. IEEE 802.11p receiver block diagram.

The timing synchronization and fine frequency correction are performed based on the output
of packet detection and coarse frequency correction block. The detail about this block can be found
in [42].

Definition 2. Packet Detection: The process of detecting a packet based on the information in the received time
domain signal Xt , such as channel bandwidth. The output of this process is the offset, from the start of the
received input waveform to the start of the detected preamble using auto-correlation.

Figure 4 shows a single IEEE 802.11p packet waveform, where the upper part is the transmitted
time domain signal and the lower part is the received time domain signal ready for channel estimation
block. It should be noted that the transmitted time domain waveform Tx (t) is a vector composed
p of
2
complex numbers, therefore we have taken the absolute of the transmitted waveform i.e., Tx (t) and
plotted in the upper part of Figure 4.

Definition 3. Coarse Frequency correction: It is the correction in terms of frequency error which is estimated by
utilizing the pre-known STS training field. The estimate contains the carrier frequency offset in Hertz. The short
length of the periodic sequence in the STS allows coarse frequency offset estimation.
Sensors 2019, 19, 98 10 of 22

TPREAMBLE = 32µs

TSHORT = 16µs TLONG = 16µs TSIGNAL = 8µs TSYMBOL = 8µs

Data 1 Data 2 Data 3 Data 4 Data 5

TGI2 = 3.2µs TGI = 1.6µs TGI = 1.6µs

10 Short Training Symbols 2 Long Training Symbols Signal Data

Figure 4. Transmitted and Received IEEE 802.11p packet.

Similarly, the received waveform signal R x (t) that is p modulated by channel [28] and at
SNR = 35 dB is drawn in the lower part of Figure 4 as R x (t)2 . For the purpose of clarity,
we have plotted only 5 data symbols. Figure 4 also gives the detailed timing information in terms of
parameters that are described in Table 4. The output of the FFT block is SR,i (k), which is the frequency
domain representation of the received symbol at kth subcarrier. In contrast to the CDP scheme, the
proposed scheme also includes the 4 phase tracking pilots and therefore k represents 52 subcarriers.
The proposed estimator updates the ith symbol’s channel estimate by using the channel response
HCDP,i−1 (k), obtained from the previous (i − 1)th symbol. The equalization process is given by
Equation (6).
SR,i (k)
ŜT,i (k ) = (6)
HCDP,i−1 (k)
Since ŜT,i (k) contains a total of 52 subcarriers. In order to construct 52 pilots, the ŜT,i (k) is
divided into two groups of subcarriers, i.e., the data subcarriers group ŜT,i (k D ) and the phase tracking
pilots subgroup ŜT,i (k P ). These groups are then demodulated separately and then demapped to the
respective constellation points to generate the two groups of pilots, i.e., one for the data subcarriers
and the other for the phase tracking pilots. The reason behind the construction of the phase tracking
pilots is to get more information for the comparison block. The process flow chart of the proposed
channel estimator algorithm is shown in Figure 5. It is clear from the process flowchart in Figure 5 that
the time domain signal in Figure 4 is now converted to the frequency domain by taking the 64 points
FFT. Then the LS estimation is performed on this signal using Equation (1). As stated earlier, the next
task is to perform the equalization to get a rough estimate of the transmitted LTS. The initial Data pilots
are created and then again LS estimation is performed which is based on the constructed data pilots.
Sensors 2019, 19, 98 11 of 22

Table 4. Timing parameters used in the proposed scheme.

Parameter Value 10 MHz Channel Bandwidth

NSD Number of data subcarriers 48 48
NSP Number of pilot subcarriers 4 4
NST Number of total subcarriers NSD + NSP 52
∆ F Subcarrier frequency spacing 10 MHz/64 0.15625 MHz
TFFT : FFT,IFFT period 1/∆ F 6.4 µs
TGI : GI duration TFFT / 4 1.6 µs
TSIGN AL : Duration of the Signal section TFFT + TGI 8 µs
TGI2 : Training symbol GI duration TFFT / 2 3.2 µs
TSYM : Symbol duration TFFT + TGI 8 µs
TSHORT : STS duration 10× TFFT / 4 16 µs
TLONG : STS duration 2× TFFT + TGI2 16 µs
TPREAMBLE : Duration of PLCP preamble TSHORT + TLONG 32 µs

Since the adjacent subcarriers to the phase tracking pilots have a higher correlation with them, so
the constructed phase tracking pilots and the originally known phase tracking pilots are compared to
decide the channel response in those regions, which helps in improving the accuracy of the overall
system. In the CDP estimation scheme, the assistance of demapping is used to partially alleviate
the impact of noise from the other interferences. Then, the remaining error is further reduced by
exploiting the correlation characteristics of the channel for the two adjacent symbols. The constructed
data pilot X̂i (k) in [5] are then employed to obtain the ith data symbol’s channel response by using the
Equation (3). We further investigated that even though Hi (k ) is a relatively accurate estimate of the
channel response, however, it is can be improved by exploiting the high correlation characteristics of
the channel. Therefore, Hi (k) is used to equalize SR,i−1 (k ) in Equation (7).

SR,i−1 (k)
Ŝ0 C,i−1 (k) = (7)
Hi (k )

Again, the SR,i−1 (k) is then equalized by HCDP,i−1 (k), i.e., the previous symbol’s estimated CR,
which has been used before in Equation (6). In order to make a comparison , SR,i−1 (k ) is also equalized
by the HCDP,i−1 (k) and the resulting equalized Sˆ00 C,i−1 (k ) is given by Equation (8).

SR,i−1 (k)
Sˆ00 C,i−1 (k) = (8)
HCDP,i−1 (k )

The one to one comparison of Ŝ0 C,i−1 (k ) and Sˆ00 C,i−1 (k ) is made by appropriately demapping them
to their respective constellation points X̂ 0 i (k) and Xˆ00 i (k). The proposed demapping process starts by
using constellation demodulation of Ŝ0 C,i−1 (k ) and Sˆ00 C,i−1 (k), using the information from the standard
IEEE 802.11 modulation coding scheme (MCS) table. Let us take the case of mcs = 2, so that after
the demodulation the Ŝ0 C,i−1 (k) is now represented by Ŝ0 Cdn,i−1 (k) and Sˆ00 C,i−1 (k) is represented by
Sˆ00 Cdn,i−1 (k). For this particular configuration, Ŝ0 Cdn,i−1 (k) can take four different values represented
by (n = 1, 2, 3, 4) Equation (9) to Equation (12).

1 i
Ŝ0 Cd1,i−1 (k) ≈ √ + √ (9)
2 2

1 i
Ŝ0 Cd2,i−1 (k) ≈ √ − √ (10)
2 2
1 i
Ŝ0 Cd3,i−1 (k ) ≈ − √ + √ (11)
2 2
1 i
Ŝ0 Cd4,i−1 (k ) ≈ − √ − √ (12)
2 2
Sensors 2019, 19, 98 12 of 22

Start

802.11p Packet
Detection

Coarse Frequency
Correction

Timing
Synchronization

64 Point FFT

LS Channel
Estimation
S R,i  k 

Equalization

SˆT,i  k 
Data pilots
construction
Xˆ i  k 
LS Channel
Estimation
Hi  k 
Spectral Temporal
Averaging
H STA,i  k 

Equalization

Sˆ C' ,i 1  k  , Sˆ C'' ,i 1  k 

Demapping

Xˆ i' 1  k  , Xˆ i''1  k 

No
Xˆ i' 1  k   Xˆ i''1  k  Choose Decision 2

Yes

Choose Decision 1

Recover Bits

Figure 5. Process flow of the proposed algorithm.

Sensors 2019, 19, 98 13 of 22

Let say P1, P2, P3, and P4 represent the values √1 + √i , √1 − √i , − √1 + √i , and − √1 − √i
2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2
respectively. In order to choose the best value, we need to take the absolute difference of Ŝ0 Cdn,i−1 (k )
(where n can take any value from 1 to 4) from P1, P2, P3, and P4 to get G1, G2, G3, and G4 as shown
in Equation (13).
Gn = abs(Ŝ0 Cdn,i−1 (k) − Pn)∀n (13)

Then the argument or index of the minimum value from G1, G2, G3, G4 is selected as shown in
Equation (14).
index = argmin( G1, G2, G3, G4) (14)

The prediction of the actual value of X̂ 0 i (k) and similarly that of Xˆ00 i (k) can be found from
Equation (15).
X̂ 0 i (k ) = Pn, i f {index == n} ∀n (15)

If X̂ 0 i (k) 6= Xˆ00 i (k) , it means that the kth subcarrier’s X̂ 0 i (k) is not valid and the assumption is
made that HCDP,i (k ) = HCDP,i−1 (k). Additionally, if the X̂ 0 i−1 (k) = Xˆ00 i (k), then it can be assumed
that HCDP,i (k) = Hi (k), which is indicated as Decision 1 in Figure 5. We argue that the two adjacent
data symbols have high correlation in frequency as well. Therefore if X̂ 0 i (k) 6= Xˆ00 i (k), it indicates
that the kth subcarrier’s X̂ 0 i (k ), which demapped after Equation (6) is incorrect and we should
define that HiCDP,i (k ) = HiCDP,i−1 (k ), i.e., the previous symbol’s estimated CR. It is indicated as
Decision 2 in Figure 5. Moreover, in contrast to the CDP scheme where otherwise, if X̂ 0 i−1 (k) =
Xˆ00 i (k) then HCDP,i (k ) = Hi (k). We argue that the superior performance over CDP scheme can be
obtained by taking into consideration Hi (k) obtained previously from Equations (3) and (5) through
the Equation (16).
1
HSTA,i−1 (k) + 12 Hupdate (k) + Hi (k)
HiCDP,i (k) = 2 (16)
2
where HiCDP,i (k) is the proposed channel estimate. The next section evaluates the proposed estimator
over the severe channel conditions of [28] and also provides comparisons with the closely related
schemes. Let us assume that | H(i,k) | represents the absolute of the estimated channel.

5. Simulation Results and Analysis

The simulation platform used in this article is Matlab 2016b. The BER simulation results of
different configurations are presented in this section. We have compared the proposed iCDP scheme
with LS, DFT, STA, and CDP schemes. The value of parameters α and β is set to 2 for the optimal
performance of the STA scheme as discussed in [36]. The performance of IEEE 802.11p is analyzed
under the different length of packets i.e., from 10, 20, 30, and up to 200 OFDM data symbols.
The simulation results reveal that LS and DFT channel estimation schemes have higher BER values,
whereas STA, CDP, and iCDP are comparatively better under all symbol lengths as shown in Figure 6.
The value of maximum Doppler shift is set to 1200 Hz for the HIPERLAN-E channel and the
modulation coding scheme is mcs = 2. It is also obvious from Figure 6 that the BER values for STA,
CDP, and iCDP remain almost same for the 10 and 20 data symbol lengths, however, as the length
increases, iCDP tends to perform better than STA and CDP. The next test is performed for the VTV
express oncoming channel model as shown in Figure 7. It is also clear from the results that under the
lower SNR regions the STA scheme performs better than CDP scheme, however, the proposed iCDP
scheme performs better than CDP scheme and nearly similar to the STA scheme.
In the higher SNR regime, the CDP scheme outperforms the STA scheme. This is due to the fact
that under the lower SNR the noise and interferences are strong enough to move the ŜT,i (k ) to the
incorrect locations, which results in demapping of X̂i (k ) to the incorrect constellation points.
The increase in SNR reduces these incorrect demappings and the CDP scheme performs better
in this regime. In contrast to the CDP scheme, the iCDP is inherently SNR aware. This is due to the
reason that the construction of data pilots is followed by LS channel Estimation and STA equalization,
Sensors 2019, 19, 98 14 of 22

which reduces the error demapping probability of X̂i (k) to the constellation points. The results show
that the STA and iCDP schemes perform equally well as compared to CDP up to the SNR value of
18 dB. On the other hand, CDP and iCDP perform better than STA from the SNR greater than 26 dB.
The iCDP overall performs better than the CDP scheme. Due to the page limit, the result of the rest of
the 5 channel models are skipped and the next results are for the HIPERLAN-E channel model.

Data Symbols vs BER

0.4
LS
DFT
0.35 CDP
STA
iCDP
0.3

0.25
BER

0.2

0.15

0.1

0.05

0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200
Data Symbols

Figure 6. Bit Error Rate (BER) vs. length of data symbols for HIgh PERformance radio Local Area
Network (HIPERLAN-E) Channel and f d = 1200 Hz.

VTV Express oncoming

10 0
BER

10 -1

LS
DFT
CDP
STA
iCDP

10 -2
5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
SNR(dB)

Figure 7. Vehicle-to-Vehicle (VTV) Express oncoming Channel, Data Symbols = 100.

Sensors 2019, 19, 98 15 of 22

Under urban traffic scenario the number of buildings and vehicles increases, hence scattering and
reflection of the transmitted signals also increase. This phenomenon leads to an increase in the number
of multi-path fading. The HIPERLAN-E channel model has a total of 18 multi-paths. Figure 8 shows
the result of the BER performance curves of different schemes for this channel model. The results show
that the STA and iCDP schemes perform equally well as compare to CDP up to the SNR value of 20 dB.
On the other hand, CDP and iCDP perform better than STA from the SNR greater than 22 dB.

HIPERLAN-E Channel Model

Figure 8. HIPERLAN-E channel model with Data Symbols = 100.

The performance comparison in terms of RMSE is shown in Figure 9. The method to obtain
RSME is described in [6]. It is clear that at an SNR of −10 dB, the DFT scheme performs better than
others. The RMSE value DFT scheme is 0.4381 at −10 dB, while the other schemes have roughly
the same value of 0.4994. It is due to the fact that DFT ignores the noise-containing coefficients of
the time domain channel response. However, the RMSE performance of DFT degrades as the SNR
becomes bigger. The iCDP and STA schemes perform almost similar till the value of SNR equal to
8 dB. However, CDP scheme performs similarly to LS scheme until SNR equal to 8 dB. The RMSE
values obtained at SNR equal to 8 dB for LS, DFT, CDP, STA, and iCDP are: 0.2111, 0.2046, 0.209,
0.1865, and 0.1860 respectively. If we go on further at the point where SNR is 26 dB, then the STA
and CDP schemes have roughly similar RMSE value of 0.1227 and the iCDP scheme has a value of
0.1071. The RMSE values of DFT and LS schemes are 0.1916 and 0.1943 respectively. Finally, at an
SNR of 40 dB, the RSME value of iCDP is 0.0899 and corresponding RMSE values for CDP and STA
are 0.9796 and 0.1112 respectively. The RMSE for LS and DFT seems saturated at roughly 0.1916 with
no further improvement in performance. This result demonstrates the performance improvement of
the proposed scheme over DFT/LS, STA, and CDP schemes with the RMSE percentage differences of
72.3%, 21.1%, and 8.5% respectively at SNR of 40 dB.
Sensors 2019, 19, 98 16 of 22

HIPERLAN-E Channel Model

Figure 9. Root-mean-square error (RMSE) comparison for HIPERLAN-E channel model with Data
Symbols = 200.

It is equally important to visualize the 3-dimensional image of the actual HIPERLAN-E channel
and its estimation by the proposed iCDP scheme to show that it tracks the channel in time and
frequency domain for the different SNR values. Figure 10 shows the effect of lower and higher SNR on
the HIPERLAN-E channel model. Figure 10a shows the actual channel conditions at under f d = 1200,
data symbols = 200, and SNR = 15 dB. Figure 10b shows the estimation of the actual channel in
Figure 10a through the proposed scheme. On the other hand, Figure 10c shows another channel
conditions at SNR = 35 dB and Figure 10d shows its estimation through the proposed scheme. It is
evident from Figure 9 that at lower SNR, the correlation among the data symbols and frequency
subcarriers suffers due to the randomness of the noise. The proposed scheme performs relatively
better than CDP under lower SNRs because it constructs the data pilots after taking into consideration
the front and previous data symbol in time domain and front and previous frequency carrier in the
frequency domain.
Figure 11 shows the multipath components of the HIPERLAN-E channel used in the simulation
of the proposed scheme. The bandlimited impulse response in Figure 11a shows 18 different paths
that are arriving at the receiver vehicle with different amplitudes and delays. Figure 11b shows the
contribution of these components with the passage of time up to 850 µs. The delay of the first path
is set to 0 µs. For subsequent paths, a 1 µs delay corresponds to a 300 m difference in path length.
In vehicular communication, the multipath environments have reflected paths that can be up to several
kilometers longer than the shortest path. With the path delays specified above, the last path is 528 m
longer than the shortest path, and thus arrives 1.76 µs later which is also obvious from the specifications
in Table 2. The path delays and path gains specify the channel’s average delay profile.
Typically, the average path gains decay exponentially with delay (i.e., the dB values decay linearly),
but the specific delay profile depends on the propagation environment. In the delay profile specified
in Figure 11, we assumed the specifications of Table 2 HIPERLAN-E channel model.
Sensors 2019, 19, 98 17 of 22

Actual HIPERLAN-E Channel iCDP Estimated HIPERLAN-E Channel

SNR = 15 dB
(Data Symbols = 200) (Data Symbols = 200)

|H(t,f)|iCDP Channel Magnitude

|H(t,f)| Channel Magnitude

(a) (b)
iCDP Estimated HIPERLAN-E Channel
Actual HIPERLAN-E Channel SNR = 35 dB
(Data Symbols = 200)
(Data Symbols = 200)
|H(t,f)|iCDP Channel Magnitude
|H(t,f)| Channel Magnitude

(c) (d)

Figure 10. Actual and Estimated HIPERLAN-E channels: (a) Actual channel at SNR = 15 dB.
(b) Estimated channel at SNR = 15 dB. (c) Actual channel at SNR = 35 dB. (d) Estimated channel
at Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) = 35 dB.

Last Path No. 18 at 1.76µs corresponds to

path difference of 528m

Delay(s)

Delay(s) Delay(µs)

Figure 11. Multipath components of the HIPERLAN-E channel: (a) Bandlimited impulse response.
(b) Multipath fading components after 850 µs.
Sensors 2019, 19, 98 18 of 22

Computational Complexity
Figure 12 shows the comparison of computation complexity in terms of the number of additions,
as a function of the number of data symbols Nd . Table 5 summarizes the comparison of the computation
complexity of different scheme in terms of divisions, multiplications, additions, and subtractions.

Computational complexity comparison

2000

LS/DFT
1800 CDP
STA
iCDP
Computation complexity in terms of Divisions

1600

1400

1200

1000

800

600

400

200

0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Data Symbols Nd

Figure 12. Computation complexity comparison of different schemes.

Table 5. Computation complexity comparison of the schemes.

Scheme Divisions Multiplications Additions Subtractions

LS 48Nd + 96 - 48 -
DFT 48Nd + 96 - 48 -
STA 104Nd + 104 148Nd − 2βNd 52 + 2(β + 1)(52 − 2β)Nd 48Nd
CDP 192Nd + 48 - 48 -
iCDP 104Nd + 104 144Nd 52+240Nd 48Nd

The higher Doppler shift causes stronger variation in the time domain as well. It is therefore
essential to visualize how the value of f d effects the channel conditions in time domain or along the
length of data symbols. Figure 13 shows this effect for different values of f d i.e., 1, 100, 200, 300,
and 400 Hz.
The impact of these values on the channel conditions is shown in Figure 13a–e. It is interesting
to notice that at a very low value of f d = 1 Hz, the channel remains almost invariant in the time axis.
Then the variations become larger as the value of f d increases.
HIPERLAN-E Channel Maximum Doppler Shift = 300Hz Maximum Doppler Shift = 400Hz
Maximum Doppler Shift = 1Hz Maximum Doppler Shift = 100Hz Maximum Doppler Shift = 200Hz
(Data Symbols = 200)
|H(t,f)| Channel Magnitude

|H(t,f)| Channel Magnitude

|H(t,f)| Channel Magnitude

|H(t,f)| Channel Magnitude

|H(t,f)| Channel Magnitude

(a) (b) (c) (d) (e)

Figure 13. Impact of f d on the channel conditions. (a) f d = 1 Hz, (b) f d = 100 Hz, (c) f d = 200 Hz,
(d) f d = 300 Hz, and (e) f d = 400 Hz.
Sensors 2019, 19, 98 19 of 22

6. Issues and Future Work

There are two main issues of the discussion and future work. The first issue is related to the
computational complexity of the channel estimation process. The schemes that follow scenario 1
achieve better BER curves at the expense of the computation complexity, which is the outcome of
complex matrix multiplications. The higher computational complexity leads to a higher requirement
of hardware resources, which ultimately requires more energy. This energy demand becomes a critical
issue for electric vehicles as discussed in [43]. The proposed scheme keeps the requirement of hardware
resources low. However, if computational complexity is not the major concern then the proposed
scheme can be further improved by constructing data pilots using Deep Learning techniques.
The second issue is related to the proper utilization of the α and β parameters, which represent
the time and frequency variations. Most of the current schemes utilize these parameters, with the
assumption of prior knowledge. However, those schemes not mentioned the determination process of
these parameters. Some authors [36] determined these parameters from a difficult realization of map
knowledge and GPS. However, due to mobility and highly random road scattering variants, these
parameters are hard to determine. One future consideration is to devise an algorithm to determine or
predict these parameters or lower their dependence on the overall system performance.

7. Conclusions
This article presents an improved CDP channel estimation scheme for vehicular communications.
The vehicular channel is dynamic in terms of frequency and time. An overview of the state-of-the-art
vehicular channel estimation schemes is presented briefly in this article. Even though these schemes
perform considerably well, however, there are still limitations and challenges. We have discussed these
challenges and proposed a scheme which constructs improved pilots from the data and phase tracking
symbols through the exploitation of correlation characteristics of vehicular channels. The proposed
scheme keeps the structure of IEEE 802.11p physical layer standard intact independent to the nature of
the channel. This makes the proposed scheme a suitable candidate for the IEEE 802.11p and different
vehicular channel models. The performance evaluation shows that it outperforms the related schemes
e.g., CDP scheme, STA scheme, LS scheme, and DFT scheme both in the lower and high SNR regions.
In addition to that, the proposed scheme has the little computational complexity as compared to the
various V2V channel estimation schemes, e.g., decision-directed scheme, Pseudo pilot scheme, and
generalized DPS based scheme.

8. Materials and Methods

The source code used in this article will be made available on github. We have used Matlab
version 2016b. The CPU used is Intel’s core i7.

Author Contributions: Conceptualization, T.W. and A.H.; Methodology, A.H.; Software, A.H., S.G and Y.C.;
Validation, A.H., Y.C. and S.G.; Formal Analysis, T.W., A.H., Y.C., and S.G; Investigation, A.H. and S.G.; Resources,
A.H.; Data Curation, A.H., W.T. and S.G.; Writing-Original Draft Preparation, T.W. and A.H.; Writing-Review
and Editing, A.H., and Y.C.; Visualization, A.H.; Supervision, T.W.; Project Administration, T.W.; Funding
Acquisition, T.W.
Funding: This research was funded by National Natural Science Foundation grant number (61102105, 51779050),
and The Harbin Science Fund for Young Reserve Talents (No. 2017RAQXJ036).
Acknowledgments: We deeply acknowledge the National Natural Science Foundation for kind support in
this work.
Conflicts of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Sensors 2019, 19, 98 20 of 22

Abbreviations
The following abbreviations are used in this manuscript:

BER Bit Error Rate

CDP Constructed data pilots
DFT Discrete Fourier Transform
DPS Generalized Discrete Prolate Spheroidal
DSRC Dedicated Short Range Communications
GI Guard Interval
iCDP Improved constructed data piloted
LS Least square estimation
LTS Long Training Symbols
MBCE The Midamble Based Channel Estimation Scheme
MCS Modulation Coding Scheme
NLOS Non line of sight
OFDM Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing
PHY Physical
PLCP Physical layer convergence procedure
STS Short Training Symbols
STA Spatial temporal Averaging
TDL Tapped Delay Line
TDLSE Time Domain Least Square Estimation Scheme
VTV Vehicle to vehicle
WSSUS Wide sense stationary uncorrelated scattering

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