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In this thesis, a blind symbol timing synchronization algorithm based on cyclic prefix for OFDM systems in multipath fading channels is proposed. It finds the starting point of symbol timing for using appropriate weights which are designed from channel delay spread characteristics. In multipath fading channels, the conventional ML (maximum likelihood) algorithm estimate is biased and has a large variance due to the effect of channel delay spread. The proposed exponential weighting methods not only solve the above problems but also improve the accuracy of symbol timing. Particularly, the proposed method does not require the information of SNR and channel length. From computer simulation results, the proposed method outperforms the other conventional algorithms and is also robust against the effect of multipath fading channels.

New approaches and algorithms are developed for the identification and estimation of low order models that represent multipath channel effects in Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) communication systems. Based on these parsimonious channel models, low complexity receivers such as RAKE receivers are considered to exploit these propagation effects and enhance the system performance. We consider the scenario where multipath is frequency selective slowly fading and where the channel components including delays and attenuation coefficients are assumed to be constant over one or few signalling intervals. We model the channel as a long FIR-like filter (or a tapped delay line filter) with the number of taps related to the ratio between the channel delay-spread and the chip duration. Due to the high data rate of new CDMA systems, the channel length in terms of the chip duration will be very large. With classical channel estimation techniques this will result in poor estimates of many of the channel parameters where most of them are zero leading to a reduction in the system performance. Unlike classical techniques which estimate directly the channel response given the number of taps or given an estimate of the channel length, the proposed techniques in this work will firstly identify the significant multipath parameters using model selection techniques, then estimate these identified parameters. Statistical tests are proposed to determine whether or not each individual parameter is significant. A low complexity RAKE receiver is then considered based on estimates of these identified parameters only. The level of significance with which we will make this assertion will be controlled based on statistical tests such as multiple hypothesis tests. Frequency and time domain based approaches and model selection techniques are proposed to achieve the above proposed objectives. / The frequency domain approach for parsimonious channel estimation results in an efficient implementation of RAKE receivers in DS-CDMA systems. In this approach, we consider a training based strategy and estimate the channel delays and attenuation using the averaged periodogram and modified time delay estimation techniques. We then use model selection techniques such as the sphericity test and multiple hypotheses tests based on F-Statistics to identify the model order and select the significant channel paths. Simulations show that for a pre-defined level of significance, the proposed technique correctly identifies the significant channel parameters and the parsimonious RAKE receiver shows improved statistical as well as computational performance over classical methods. The time domain approach is based on the Bootstrap which is appropriate for the case when the distribution of the test statistics required by the multiple hypothesis tests is unknown. In this approach we also use short training data and model the channel response as an FIR filter with unknown length. Model parameters are then estimated using low complexity algorithms in the time domain. Based on these estimates, bootstrap based multiple hypotheses tests are applied to identify the non-zero coefficients of the FIR filter. Simulation results demonstrate the power of this technique for RAKE receivers in unknown noise environments. Finally we propose adaptive blind channel estimation algorithms for CDMA systems. Using only the spreading code of the user of interest and the received data sequence, four different adaptive blind estimation algorithms are proposed to estimate the impulse response of frequency selective and frequency non-selective fading channels. Also the idea is based on minimum variance receiver techniques. Tracking of a frequency selective varying fading channel is also considered. / A blind based hierarchical MDL model selection method is also proposed to select non-zero parameters of the channel response. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithms perform better than previously proposed algorithms. They have lower complexity and have a faster convergence rate. The proposed algorithms can also be applied to the design of adaptive blind channel estimation based RAKE receivers.