Sparse channel estimation via matching pursuit with application to equalization

Channels with a sparse impulse response arise in a number of communication applications. Exploiting the sparsity of the channel, we show how an estimate of the channel may be obtained using a matching pursuit (MP) algorithm. This estimate is compared to thresholded variants of the least squares (LS) channel estimate. Among these sparse channel estimates, the MP estimate is computationally much simpler to implement and a shorter training sequence is required to form an accurate channel estimate leading to greater information throughput.