Channel estimation for high speed unmanned aerial vehicle with STBC in MIMO radio links

This paper proposes a channel estimation method based on Kalman filter and adaptive estimation with space-time block code (STBC) and multiple antenna systems [multiple input single output (MISO) and multiple input multiple output (MIMO)] for high speed UAVs. Simulations have been done in time-varying Rayleigh faded channels for BPSK and QPSK. The proposed technique shows a very good error for severely faded channels. Application of Alamouti STBCs with diversity based on multiple antennas provides improved performance in faded wireless channels. Alamouti transmit diversity scheme, however, relies on the availability of accurate channel state information (CSI) for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Simulation results show that our proposed method achieves accurate estimation for the SNR and Doppler shift in a wide range of velocities and SNRs.