868
3, MARCH 2008
A Factor Graph Approach to the Iterative Detection
of OFDM Signals in the Presence of
Carrier Frequency Offset and Phase Noise
Filippo Zuccardi Merli and Giorgio Matteo Vitetta, Senior Member, IEEE
Abstract— This paper provides a new iterative solution to the
problem of the joint estimation of phase noise and residual carrier
frequency offset in an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing
transmission over a multipath fading channel, in the presence of
known data and channel impulse response. The proposed tech-
nique results from the application of the sum-product algorithm
to a factor graph representing the joint a posteriori probability
density function of the carrier frequency offset and the phase
noise vector affecting a given symbol. The resulting algorithm
is shown to be exploited in a coherent receiver for both data-
aided training and decision-directed tracking. Its performance
is assessed by computer simulations and is compared with that
provided by other strategies.
Index Terms— Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing,
factor graphs, sum-product algorithm, fading channel, carrier
frequency offset, phase noise.
I. I NTRODUCTION
I T is well known that orthogonal frequency division multi-
plexing (OFDM) [1] systems are more sensitive to a resid-
ual carrier frequency offset (CFO) and to phase noise (PHN)
than their single carrier (SC) counterparts [2], [3]. In this case,
in fact, the use of properly coded techniques, like differential
codes [4], in conjunction with low complexity estimation
algorithms [5]–[7], can guarantee satisfactory performance.
On the other hand CFO and PHN are more challenging
problems in OFDM systems because they affect the subcarrier
orthogonality producing both a phase offset, dubbed common
phase error (CPE), that rotates all the subcarriers of each
OFDM symbol, and a noise-like interference between close
subcarriers, known as inter-carrier interference (ICI) [8], [9].
For these reasons they need to be properly estimated and
compensated for at the receive side in order to avoid an
appreciable performance degradation [10].
In the last years various solutions have been proposed for
CFO/PHN estimation and compensation in OFDM systems.
For example PHN compensation strategies are analyzed in
[11]–[15] and their effects on the system performance in
[16]. However all these works do not take into account the
effects of CFO. On the other hand many papers deal to
CFO estimation in OFDM systems in presence of unknown
channel, pointing out how the presence of an uncompensated
Manuscript received June 12, 2006; revised November 30, 2006; accepted
March 26, 2007. The associate editor coordinating the review of this paper
and approving it for publication was F. Daneshgaran.
F. Zuccardi Merli and G. M. Vitetta are with the Dept. of Information
Eng., University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, 41100 Modena, Italy (e-mail:
{zuccardimerli.filippo, vitetta.giorgio}@unimo.it).
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TWC.2008.060358.
1536-1276/08$25.00 
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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS, VOL. 7, NO.
CFO can appreciably degrades the channel estimation. This
task is analyzed using different estimation strategies: in [17]
a sequential Monte Carlo estimation strategy is used, CFO
estimator maximizing likelihood functions are obtained in
[18]–[21] or some other cost functions in [22]. Finally in [23]
the frequency synchronization is achieved using Kalman Fil-
tering. Moreover a number of data-aided [24]–[26] and blind
(i.e., data independent) [27]–[33] CFO estimators have been
devised respectively for receiver initialization and tracking and
the effects of synchronization errors on OFDM modulations
are illustrated in [34]. It is important to point out, however,
that all the above CFO estimators do not take into account the
presence of PHN in the received signal model and this explain
why their estimation accuracy worsens in the presence of that
impairment. Moreover, in some applications, even if the CFO
is compensated for, an acceptable performance is not attained
if PHN effects are not cancelled [3].
In [8] Robertson and Kaiser proposed a more pragmatic
approach to derive a data-aided compensation strategy for
both CFO and PHN, combining their effects in an unique
phase contribution, called combined phase impairment. This
was the basic idea that inspired some more recent papers [35]–
[36]. All the above cited papers employ a maximum likelihood
approach to multiplying each received signal sample by a
proper complex coefficient, when detecting an OFDM symbol.
However, on the one hand, the technique proposed in [8]
suppresses the CPE term only, providing poor performance
in the presence of a large CFO and/or of strong PHN, since
the ICI contribution is not cancelled. On the other hand, the
algorithms derived in [35] and [36] try to cope with ICI
also. Note that all these techniques do not compute explicit
estimates of the CFO and the PHN, since they only try to
compensate for their effects. This explains why satisfactory
performance is not achieved when these algorithms operate in
a decision-directed fashion to track quick phase changes due
to Doppler shifts and/or to the instability of local oscillators.
In fact, a coherent receiver needs accurate estimates of both
CFO and PHN to correct the received signal samples feeding
the discrete Fourier transform (DFT) block, in order to sub-
stantially reduce the CPE and ICI in the DFT output samples
used for data detection.
In this paper a novel iterative technique for the joint
estimation and cancellation of both CFO and PHN is proposed.
It results from (a) the application of the sum-product algorithm
(SPA) to the factor graph (FG) [37] of the joint probability
c 2008 IEEE
MERLI and VITETTA: A FACTOR GRAPH APPROACH TO THE ITERATIVE DETECTION OF OFDM SIGNALS
density function (pdf) of the residual1 CFO and the phase
noise vector affecting a single OFDM symbol, conditioned
on the transmitted symbol and the channel state, and (b) the
adoption of a particle filtering (PF) strategy operating over
the continuous spaces of the parameters to be estimated [38]–
[39]. A PF approach for OFDM detection in presence of time
and frequency synchronization errors has been proposed in
[40], in which, however, PHN is not taken into account and
PF algorithm is used to maximize an intractable likelihood
function and not to update the pdfs of unknown parameters
in a FG. Finally it is important to point out that, like all
the above mentioned techniques, our estimator requires a
knowledge of the wireless channel and, for this reason, it is
mainly suitable to fixed wireless access applications, where
the slowing time-varying nature of the propagation scenario
makes accurate channel estimation a simple task. Unlike them,
however, our algorithm compensates for CPE and ICI in the
received samples using explicit estimates of the frequency and
phase parameters and can closely approach ideal performance
after few iterations, even in the presence of strong PHN.
This paper is organized as follows. Signal and channel
models are illustrated in Section II. The derivation of our
estimation technique based on the SPA and on a PF algorithm
is analyzed in Section III, where the issue of its computational
complexity is also discussed. Section IV describes the use of
the devised estimator in an iterative coherent receiver, peri-
odically trained by pilot symbols. Some performance results
are illustrated in Section V, where the proposed solution is
compared with those of [8] and [35]. Finally, Section VI offers
some conclusions.
II. S IGNAL AND C HANNEL M ODELS
The block diagram of the OFDM transmitter is illustrated
in [28, Fig. 1, p. 245]. The input data stream is mapped into
a sequence of independent and identically distributed channel
symbols, each belonging to an M -ary complex constellation.
This sequence is divided into non overlapping blocks, each
.
consisting of Nu = 2Nα + 1 symbols2 , where Nu represents
. is the useful component of r(t). Here fk  k/N Ts is the
the number of useful subcarriers. Then Nvc = N − Nu null
symbols (where Nvc is the number of virtual carriers and N
is the overall number of subcarriers) are added to each block
(l) (l)
producing a N -dimensional vector: let a(l) = [a0 , a1 , ...,
(l) T T interval. In addition w(t) is complex additive white Gaussian
aN −1 ] (where (·) represents the transpose operator) denote
the vector transmitted in the l-th OFDM symbol interval. This
vector feeds an N -th order inverse discrete Fourier transform
. (l) (l) (l)
(IDFT) producing the vector b(l) = [b0 , b1 , ..., bN −1 ]T ,
which is extended adding a cyclic prefix of length Ncp . Finally,
the resulting block of length NT = N + Ncp , after series to
parallel conversion, feeds a transmission filter, having impulse
response p(t), at a rate 1/Ts , where Ts is the channel symbol
interval. In the following we assume that p(t) is time limited
to the interval (−Np Ts , Np Ts ) and that its Fourier transform
P (f ) is the root of a raised cosine with roll-off α, so that
Nα = int[N (1 − α)/2] [28].
1 Generally speaking, the CFO consists of a multiple of the subcarrier
spacing plus a residual, which does not exceed half of this spacing. In
the following it is always assumed that the former has been completely
compensated for, so that only the latter needs to be estimated.
2 The parameter N is defined below.
α the N dimensional vector r(l) = [r0 , r1 , ..., rN −1 ]T , with
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869
The OFDM signal is transmitted over a wide sense sta-
tionary uncorrelated scattering (WSS-US) Rayleigh fading
channel with time varying impulse response h(t, τ ) [41]. In the
following we assume that: (a) the channel impulse response
(CIR) is
L−1

h(t, τ ) = hn (t) δ(τ − nTs ) (1)
n=0
where L is the number of distinct paths and {hl (t), l = 0, 1,
..., L − 1} are mutually independent, WSS Gaussian complex
random processes, having zero mean and statistical powers
.
{σ 2 (n) = E{|hn (t)|2 }, n = 0, 1, ..., L − 1}; (b) the channel
can be deemed static over each OFDM symbol interval (quasi
static channel), so that during the transmission of the l-th
OFDM symbol interval the CIR (1) can be approximated as
L−1
. 
h(t, τ ) ∼
= h(l) (τ ) = hn [l] δ(τ − nTs ) (2)
n=0
where h(l) (τ ) and hn [l] denote the CIR and the value taken
by the n-th tap gain hn (t) of (1), with n = 0, 1, ..., L − 1,
in the l-th OFDM symbol interval, respectively; (c) Ncp ≥
2Np + L − 1, so that no inter-block interference is found in
the detection of OFDM symbols.
At the receive side if the CFO does not exceed the subcarrier
spacing and changes negligibly over each OFDM interval, it
can be shown that the received signal, after down-conversion
and low-pass filtering, can be expressed as [28], [35]
 
r(t) = s t − lNT Ts , a(l) , H(l) , ν (l) , φ(t) + w(t) (3)
for t ∈ [lNT Ts , (lNT + N )Ts ], where
   
.
s t, a(l) , H(l) , ν (l) , φ(t) = exp j2πν (l) t/N Ts + jφ(t)
N
 −1
1 (l) (l)
·√ a Hk
N Ts k=0 k
· exp(j2πfk t) (4)
. (l) (l) (l)
k-th subcarrier frequency, H(l) = [H0 , H1 , ..., HN −1 ]T
(l)
and Hn (with n = 0, 1, ..., N − 1) is the channel frequency
response at the n-th subcarrier frequency in the l-th symbol
noise (AWGN) with two-sided power spectral density 2N0
over the OFDM signal bandwidth, whereas φ(t) and ν (l)
are the phase noise process (due to both transmitter and
receiver local oscillators) and the residual CFO (normalized
to the OFDM symbol rate 1/N Ts ), respectively, affecting the
demodulated signal in the l-th symbol interval. Note that the
stochastic process φ(t) is independent of the CFO and can
be described as a continuous Brownian motion process with
zero mean and variance 2πβt, where β denotes the two-sided
linewidth, i.e. the 3-dB bandwidth of the PHN power spectrum
[3].
When detecting the l-th OFDM symbol, the signal r(t) (3)
(l) .
is sampled at the instants tn = lNT Ts + nTs , with n =
−Ncp , −Ncp + 1, ..., N − 1. Discarding the first Ncp samples
(i.e., the samples associated with the cyclic prefix) produces
. (l) (l) (l)
870 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS, VOL. 7, NO. 3, MARCH 2008

(l) . (l)
rn = r(tn ) and n = 0, 1, ..., N − 1. It is not difficult to following sections operates on a block-by-block basis, the de-
prove that this vector can be expressed in matrix form as pendence of the signal models (5)-(10) on the block index l is
dropped in the following to simplify the algorithm derivation.
r(l) = E(l) FN A(l) H(l) + w(l) (5)
. .
where A(l) = diag{a(l) } (X = diag{x} denotes the N × N
III. A FACTOR G RAPH A PPROACH TO DATA -A IDED J OINT
diagonal matrix having the elements of the N dimensional
. E STIMATION OF CFO AND PHN
vector x along its main diagonal), E(l) = diag{e(l) }, e(l) =
(l) (l) (l) (l) (l)
[e0 , e1 , ..., eN −1 ] with en = exp(j2πnν (l) + jφn ) and
T
A. Derivation of a CFO & PHN Estimator Based on the SPA
(l) . (l)
φn = φ(tn ), and FN is an N × N IDFT matrix with An algorithm extracting approximate maximum likelihood
[FN ]p,q = exp[j2πpq/N ] (p, q = 0, 1, ..., N − 1). Moreover, (ML) estimates ν̂ and φ̂ of the normalized CFO ν and the
. (l) (l) (l) .
w(l) = [w0 , w1 , ..., wN −1 ]T is a noise vector consisting PHN vector φ = [φ0 , φ1 , ..., φN −1 ]T , respectively, from the
of independent and identically distributed complex Gaussian signal received in a single OFDM symbol interval can process
2
random variables, each having zero mean and variance σw = the time domain sample vector r (5) or its frequency-domain
2N0 /Ts . It is important to note that counterpart R (8). The dependence of the elements of the
1) because of the nature of the PHN process φ(t) [10], former vector on the PHN, however, is substantially easier than
(l)
the PHN sequence {φn } in (5) can be modelled as a that of the latter one because of the transmitted and receiver
discrete-time Markov process, so that [5], [42] oscillators, that are the origin of PHN process, upconverting
(l)
and downconverting respectively the OFDM signal in its time
φ(l) (l)
n = φn−1 + Δn (6) domain form (i.e. after the IDFT at the transmitter side and
(l) before the DFT at the receiver side). At the same time,
with n = −Ncp , −Ncp + 1, ..., N − 1 and φ−Ncp −1 =
(l−1) (l)
however, it is well known that data detection in OFDM system
φN −1 . Here {Δn } is a real white Gaussian process can be achieved with a low complexity one-tap equalization
.
with zero mean and variance σφ2 = γ/N , where γ = technique in the frequency domain [4]. Moreover an OFDM
2πβT and T = N Ts is the OFDM symbol period. iterative receiver, like that described in the following section,
2) The channel vector H(l) in (5) can be expressed as [43], needs to keep as low as possible the number of DFT/IDFT
[44] implemented during its iterations to not overload the system.
H(l) = FN,L h(l) (7) For this reason in this section we describe the PHN estimation
. in the time domain when the data matrix is known, and then
where h(l) = [h0 [l], h1 [l], ..., hL−1 [l]]T and FN,L is a
N × L DFT matrix with [FN,L ]p,q = exp[−j2πpq/N ] in the next section we show an iterative receiver strategy for
(p = 0, 1, ..., N − 1 and q = 0, 1, ..., L − 1). joint PHN and data estimation keeping low the number of
DFT/IDFT operations. Following this way, in our derivation
The vector r(l) (5) feeds an N -th order DFT producing the
. (l) (l) (l) we take into consideration the signal model (5), that we rewrite
N dimensional vector R(l) = [R0 , R1 , ..., RN −1 ]T . It can as (see (7))
be shown that [9], [24], [35] r = EZ + w (11)
 
(l) (l) (l)
Rk = g 0, ν (l) , φ(l) ak Hk + .
where Z = FN A FN,L h = [z0 , z1 , ..., zN −1 ]T represents
 
(l) the contribution of both the transmitted data and the channel
ICI k, a(l) , ν (l) , φ(l) + nk (8)
impulse response (CIR). As was asserted in the Introduction,
. (l) (l) (l)
with k = 0, 1, ..., N −1, where φ(l) = [φ0 , φ1 , ..., φN −1 ]T , the CIR can be assumed known for fixed access application3
  and, if the data matrix is assumed known as stated above,
ICI k, a(l) , ν (l) , φ(l) then the matrix Z in (11) is also known. Under the above
assumption, following [5], an estimation algorithm can be
N
 −1   devised applying the SPA to the factor graph of the joint
.
= g n − k, ν (l) , φ(l) a(l)
n Hn
(l)
(9)
posterior probability density function f (ν̃, φ̃|r, A, h) of the
n=0, n=k
normalized CFO ν and the PHN vector φ, given the received
N −1
vector r, the transmitted symbols A and the CIR vector h.
. 1  In fact this leads, in principle, to the computation of the pdf
g(n − k, ν (l) , φ(l) ) = exp [j2πp(n − k)/N ]
N p=0 f (ν|r, A, h) (f (φn |r, A, h), with n = 0, 1, ..., N − 1) of
   the CFO (of the n-th element of the PHN vector φ), through
(l)
exp j 2πν (l) p/N + φk (10) the marginalization of f (ν̃, φ̃|r, A, h) with respect to φ (with
(l)
respect to ν and to {φk , k = n}) [37]; then a ML estimate of
and the set {ni , i = 0, 1, ..., N − 1} consists of inde- ν (φn , with n = 0, 1, ..., N − 1) can be evaluated through a
pendent and identically distributed complex Gaussian ran- maximum search.
dom variables, each having zero mean and variance σn2 = A factorization of the pdf f (ν̃, φ̃|r, A, h), useful for the
2N0 /Ts . In (8) the quantity ICI(k, a(l) , ν (l) , φ(l) ) expresses representation of its FG, can be derived as follows. Given the
the ICI affecting the k-th subcarrier, whereas the term received signal model (11), this joint pdf can be also rewritten
g(0, ν (l) , φ(l) ) represents the CPE due to the residual CFO and
to the PHN on the same subcarrier. 3 In practice, the CIR can be estimated before CFO and PHN compensation
Since the signal processing algorithm described in the resorting to a data-aided algorithm, like those proposed in [45]-[46].

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MERLI and VITETTA: A FACTOR GRAPH APPROACH TO THE ITERATIVE DETECTION OF OFDM SIGNALS 871

fn 1 fn fn 1 joint pdf in (12) leads to the factorization

fn
  N
 −1 N
 −1
0 n
fn f ν̃, φ̃|r, Z = f (ν̃) δ δn−1 fn (19)
n=1 n=0
.
where fn = fn (rn |zn , ν, φn ) with n = 0, 1, ..., N − 1.
fn fn
n n
The corresponding FG is illustrated in Fig. 1. Such a graph
is not cycle-free (its girth is equal to 6), so that accurate
n 1 n n 1
pdf marginalization requires a sort of iterative SPA [47].
n
n 1
n n In the solution we propose here each iteration consists of
n 1 n
downward/upward message passing steps and is carried out
according to the scheduling strategy described in the follow-
n 1 pnnn 1 n 1
ing. The downward message passing starts with the parallel
n 2 n 1 n

evaluation of the messages4 (see Fig. 1)

Fig. 1. Factor graph for CFO and PHN estimation. Both CIR and data are     
.
assumed known. μfn →ν (ν̃) = fn rn |zn , ν̃, φ̃n μφn →fn φ̃n dφ̃n
Γφn
(20)
and

as f (ν, φ|r, Z) and factored as .
μfn →φn (φ̃n ) = fn (rn |zn , ν̃, φ̃n ) μν→fn (ν̃) dν̃ (21)
      Γν
f ν̃, φ̃|r, Z = f ν̃, φ̃ f r|Z, ν̃, φ̃
going from the factor node fn (13) to the variable nodes ν and
  N
−1   φn (with n = 0, 1, ..., N − 1), respectively. Here, Γφn and Γν
= f (ν̃) f φ̃ fn rn |zn , ν̃, φ̃n (12) denote the spaces of the PHN sample φn and of the normalized
n=0
CFO ν, respectively, whereas μφn →fn (φn ) and μν→fn (ν) are
since (a) the PHN is independent of the CFO, (b) the vector r, the messages from the variable nodes φn and ν, respectively,
given Z, ν and φ, consists of statistically independent random to the factor node fn . The last messages are evaluated in the
variables and (c) rn depends on φn and ν (with n = 0, 1, ..., final part of each iteration and are set to 1 (neutral element
N − 1), but not on the other components of φ. It is easy to of the product operation in the SPA) at the beginning of the
show that first iteration. The final step in the downward message passing

  1 |rn − ẽ n zn |
2 consists of evaluating recursively the forward message5
fn rn |zn , ν̃, φ̃n =  exp − (13) 
2 2σw2
2πσw μδn−1
n →φn =
. n
μfn−1 →φn−1 μδn−1 →φn−1 δn−1 dφ̃n−1
n−2
. Γφn−1
where ẽn = exp(j2πnν̃ + j φ̃n ), and that (22)
n
N
 −1 from the factor node δn−1 to the variable node φn , and the
f (φ̃) = f (φ̃0 ) f (φ̃n |φ̃n−1 ) (14) backward message6
n=1

.
since the elements of φ are consecutive samples of a discrete- μδnn+1 →φn = μfn+1 →φn+1 μδn+2 →φn+1 δnn+1 dφ̃n+1
n+1
Γφn+1
time Markov process [5], [11]. Note that (23)
f (φ̃n |φ̃n−1 ) = fΔ (φ̃n − φ̃n−1 ) (15) from the factor node δnn+1 to the variable node φn , with n = 0,
1, ..., N − 1. The final step in each iteration is represented by
where fΔ (x) the evaluation of the upward message

.
2
1
|x| μφn →fn = μδn−1n →φn · μδnn+1
→φn (24)
fΔ (x) =  exp − 2 (16)
2
2πσφ 2σ φ from the variable node φn to the factor node fn and by that
. of the upward message
is the pdf of the phase increment Δn = (φn − φn−1 ), so that
N −1
(14) can be rewritten as . 
μν→fn = μfk →ν (25)
  N
−1   k=0
f (φ̃) = f φ̃0 fΔ φ̃n − φ̃n−1 (17) k=n
n=1 from the variable node ν to the factor node fn , with n = 0,
or also as 1, ..., N − 1. After Nit iterations an estimate fˆ(ν̃) of the pdf
N
 −1
f (φ̃) = δ 0 n
δn−1 (18) 4 An explicit indication of the iteration index is omitted in the following
n=1 formulas to simplify the notation.
  5 Uniform pdfs are taken as initial conditions for both forward and backward
n . .
if we define δn−1 = fΔ φ̃n − φ̃n−1 and δ 0 = f (φ̃0 ) to messages, so that μδ0 →φ0 = μδN →φ = 1/2π.
N −1 N −1
simplify the notation. Substituting now (18) into (12) and 6 Forwardand backward messages are computed in parallel, exactly like in
adopting the simplified notation fn to denote the conditional the BCJR algorithm [48].

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872
can be evaluated multiplying all the messages reaching the
variable node associated with the CFO, i.e. as (see Fig. 1)
N −1
. 
ˆ space and the Mν (Mφ ) messages {fˆ(ν̃l )} ({fˆ(φ̃n,l )}), i.e
f (ν̃) = μfn →ν
n=0
Similarly, an estimate fˆ(φ̃n ) of f (φ̃n ) can be evaluated as
 
. (0)
fˆ φ̃n = μδn−1
n →φn · μδn n+1
→φn · μfn →φn (27)
with n = 0, 1, ..., N − 1. Finally, the estimates ν̂ ( φ̂n )
of ν (φn ) can be computed looking for the value of ν̃
(φ̃n ) maximizing fˆ(ν̃) (26) (fˆ(φ̃n ) (27) with n = 0, 1, ...,
N − 1). Unluckily, simple expressions for the evaluation of
the messages in the SPA-based technique illustrated above
cannot be found, because of the unavailability of closed form
expressions for the integrals in (20)–(23). This problem can
be also related to the fact that the parameters ν and {φn ,
n = 0, 1, ..., N − 1} are continuous, so that their pdfs
are continuous functions. Despite all this, an approximate and
computationally efficient solution can be derived from these
results, as illustrated in the next Paragraph. It is important to
note that equations similar to (21)–(23) have been devised in
[5] and in [42] for PHN estimation in SC modulation, where,
however, CFO contribution was not taken into account and
the intractable sum-product rules have been approximated by
canonical distributions in [5], quantization technique in [5]
and in [42], gradient method and particle methods in [42].
B. A Simplified Algorithm Based on Space Discretization and
Particle Filtering
To simplify the SPA-based estimator illustrated in the
previous Paragraph we resorted to a combination of two
distinct techniques, namely space discretization and particle-
filtering [49], [50]. The first technique consists of replacing the
continuous space Γφn of (20) (Γν of (21), with n = 0, 1, ...,
N −1) with a set Γ̃φn (Γ̃ν ) containing Mφ (Mν ) distinct values
belonging to the same space. It can be exploited to compute
the quantities (20)–(23) via numerical integration [42], [51]
and for an approximate
  search of the maxima of the pdfs
ˆ ˆ
f (ν̃) (26) and f φ̃n (27). A grid-based discretization [51]
may require, however, an appreciable computational effort to
approach closely the performance of a continuous SPA-based
algorithm, as evidenced by previous work on phase estimation
[5]. To circumvent this problem, particle filtering has been
exploited. For an overview of PF over factor graph see [52]–
[53]. This method consists of approximating a continuous pdf
with some random samples (called particles) of its domain
space, each characterized by a numerical weight, depending on
the pdf itself; if the value taken on by a given weight is below
a certain threshold, the corresponding particle can be removed
from the sample space and replaced by a new one generated
resampling the pdf near the remaining particles. The adopted
PF algorithm operates as follows: (a) at the beginning the
. .
space Γν = [−0.5, 0.5] (Γφn = [−π, π]) of the CFO (PHN)
is uniformly sampled taking Mν (Mφ ) equally spaced particles
(0) (0)
{ν̃l ∈ Γ̃ν } ({φ̃n,l ∈ Γ̃φn }, with n = 0, 1, ..., N − 1)7 ; (b)
7 We remember that the proposed algorithm is thought to correct only the
fractional part of the CFO.
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the quantities in the right hand sides (RHSs) of (20), (25),
(26) ((21), (22), (23), (24), (27)) are evaluated on the basis
(0) (0)
of the available particles {ν̃l } ({φ̃n,l }) of the CFO (PHN)
(0) (0)
(26)
the weights of all the available particles, are transmitted in
parallel to the neighboring nodes; (c) after accomplishing Npf
consecutive iterations (with Npf < Nit ) over the FG of Fig. 1,
(0)
each of the particles {ν̃l } ({φ̃n,l }) characterized by a weight
fˆ(ν̃l ) (26) (fˆ(φ̃n,l ) (27)) below a given threshold εν (εφ ) is
(0) (0)
(0) (0)
removed from its space, so that Sν (Sφn ) surviving particles
(0) (0) (0) (0)
remain; (d) Fν = Mν − Sν (Fφn = Mφn − Sφn ) new
CFO (PHN) particles are generated through space resampling
(1) (1)
[49], so that a new particle set {ν̃l } ({φ̃n,l }) drawn from the
CFO (PHN) space with the same overall number of particles
is generated and the procedure can restart from step (b) to be
repeated Nit /Npf times.
It is important to point out that:
1) in the implementation of this procedure the cardinality
of the particle spaces is kept fixed in all the iterations,
in order to ensure a constant computational load;
2) this strategy updates the particle spaces (Nit /Npf ) times
when processing a single OFDM symbol;
3) the final estimate ν̂ (φ̂n ) of the CFO ν (PHN sample
φn , with n = 0, 1, ..., N − 1) is represented by the
particle maximizing (26) ((27)) over the corresponding
final particle space Γ̃ν (Γ̃φn ).
In the following the resulting data-aided estimator is dubbed
Joint carrier Frequency offset and Phase noise Estimator
Based on the SPA (JFPE-BSPA, briefly). As illustrated in
Section IV, this algorithm, if employed in a decision-directed
fashion, can be exploited to devise a new iterative strategy,
jointly estimating data, CFO and PHN. However, before
analysing this application, it is important to assess the compu-
tational complexity of the JFPE-BSPA and to compare it with
that of other existing strategies.
C. Computational Complexity
In this Paragraph, the computational complexity of the
JFPE-BSPA is compared with the CFO & PHN compensa-
tion algorithms illustrated in [35] and in [8], and dubbed
Nikitopoulos-Polydoros Frequency offset and Phase noise
Compensator (NP-FPC) and Robertson-Kaiser Frequency off-
set and Phase noise Compensator (RK-FPC), respectively. It
is worth noting that: (a) on the one hand, the NP-FPC and
the RK-FPC directly compensate for the joint effects of both
CFO and PHN and that, on the other hand, the JFPE-BSPA
first estimates CFO & PHN and uses such estimates for phase
correction in the received signal samples; (b) the NP-FPC and
RK-FPC are open-loop algorithms, whereas the JFPE-BSPA
is an iterative algorithm requiring multiple (Nit ) iterations for
convergence. The last need arises from the fact that the JFPE-
BSPA requires an estimate of the CFO (PHN) to assess the
PHN (CFO), and, since the FG of Fig. 1 is not cycle-free, an
iterative parameter updating procedure, like that described in
Section III, must be accomplished.
The expressions of the overall number of real multiplies
(rms) and real additions (ras) required by the above mentioned
MERLI and VITETTA: A FACTOR GRAPH APPROACH TO THE ITERATIVE DETECTION OF OFDM SIGNALS 873

TABLE I
C OMPUTATIONAL COMPLEXITY PER OFDM SYMBOL OF THE JFPE-BSPA, OF THE WPF-JFPE-BSPA, AND OF THE NP-FPC AND THE RK-FPC
TECHNIQUES .

Algorithm Overall number of complex multiplies and complex additions

2Mν Mφ Mφ2
N Nit · (2Mν Mφ + Npf + 6Mφ + Npf ) + N · (2Mφ + Mν ) mult.
JFPE-BSPA 5M M M2
N Nit · (2Mν Mφ + Nνpf φ + 2Mφ + Npfφ ) add.
N Nit · (4Mν Mφ + 6Mφ + Mφ2 ) + N · (2Mφ + Mν ) mult.
WPF-JFPE-BSPA
N Nit · (7Mν Mφ + 2Mφ + Mφ2 ) add.
3N 2 + 20N mult.
NP-FPC
N 2 + 12N add.
18N mult.
RK-FPC
9N add.

algorithms, when processing a single OFDM symbol, are listed
in Table I. We note that the complexity of the RK-FPC and
NP-FPC grows linearly and quadratically, respectively, with
the number of subcarriers N and that the multiplicative coeffi-
cient of the parameter N for the JFPE-BSPA increases with the
number of iterations Nit and with the cardinality Mφ and Mν
of the discretized spaces of the PHN and CFO, respectively.
Moreover in the same table we illustrate a computational
complexity of the system derived in Paragraph III.A using
not the Particle Filtering to operate on the continuous values
of the parameters, but using the basic quantization technique
illustrated in [5] where the continuous values are replaced by
some of the samples taken from their continuous space Γν
(CFO) and Γφn (PHN). This algorithm, called WPF-JFPE-
BSPA (without PF JFPE-BSPA), does not update its samples
like in Particle Filtering approach and it is briefly analyzed
in this paragraph to assess the computational saving coming
from the use of the PF algorithm over traditional quantization
technique. Note that the JFPE-BSPA updates the CFO and
PHN samples spaces (Γ̃ν and Γ̃φn ) every Npf iterations, with
Npf < Nit , whereas in the WPF-JFPE-BSPA these spaces
remain static, so that the computational complexity of the
WPF-JFPE-BSPA can be obtained from that of the JFPE-
BSPA setting Npf = 1. If N = 256, Nit = 4, Npf = 2,
Mφ = 11, and Mν = 11 are selected, these formulas yield
the following results: ∼ 4.35 · 105 rms and ∼ 4.33 · 105 ras
for the JFPE-BSPA, ∼ 2.01 · 105 rms and ∼ 6.86 · 104 ras for
the NP-FPC and, finally, ∼ 4.61 · 103 rms and ∼ 2.31 · 103 ras
for the RK-FPC. Moreover, as evidenced by the simulation
results shown in Section V, the WPF-JFPE-BSPA requires
large values for the cardinalities Mφ and Mν of the sample
spaces and that, in particular, it can approach closely NP-FPC
performance with Mφ = 25, Mν = 25. In this case, despite
the fact that the computational complexity of the WPF-JFPE-
BSPA (∼ 3.37 · 106 rms and ∼ 5.17 · 106 ras) is about 10
times larger than that of the JFPE-BSPA, the latter algorithm
substantially outperforms the former one. This evidences the
importance of combining the SPA with a PF strategy in the
investigated estimation problem.
IV. I TERATIVE E STIMATION OF DATA , CFO AND PHN
In OFDM mobile transmissions robust tracking of both CFO
and PHN is usually needed. This target is usually achieved
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transmitting equally spaced pilot symbols [54], so that a data-
aided training of the system can be regularly accomplished at
the receiver side. In the following it is assumed that each pilot
OFDM symbol is followed by (D − 1) information symbols,
so that the pilot symbol rate is equal to 1/D.
In RK-FPC [8] and in NP-FPC [35] pilot data are exploited
to compute proper complex coefficients; then, these are em-
ployed to compensate for the CFO & PHN in the received
signal samples, without explicitly estimating these synchro-
nization parameters. Unluckily, as illustrated in Section V,
a substantial performance degradation is found when such
compensation algorithms operate in a decision-directed (DD)
fashion to update their coefficients during the transmission of
information symbols. In fact, abrupt variations in the CFO
and/or in the PHN, due to Doppler and/or oscillator instabili-
ties, cannot be easily tracked and compensated for in this way.
This problem can be solved using the JFPE-BSPA for both
system initialization in pilot symbol intervals and tracking
during the transmission of information symbols. However, be-
fore illustrating how the JFPE-BSPA can be exploited for data
detection, it is important to clarify some important aspects. In
fact as it was illustrated in [5], a factor graph approach for
PHN estimation in SC modulations can be exploited to update
the a posteriori probability of the transmitted data if they are
properly inserted inside the graph representation, resulting in
a soft maximum a posteriori (MAP) detector. This strategy
can be properly extended to OFDM modulation adding at
the bottom of the time domain factor graph representation
of Fig. 1 the nodes corresponding to the transmitted data.
But this is not the only required operation, like would be for
SC modulation, because, as was asserted at the beginning of
Section III, the transmitted symbols in an OFDM system are
generated in the frequency domain and an IDFT operation is
needed for the message coming from these data nodes to the
function nodes δnn+1 , with n = 0, ..., N − 2. This is needed
because, as it was illustrated in Fig. 1 and in Section III, the
PHN estimation strategy is implemented in the time domain.
Moreover when such PHN estimation is accomplished, to
update the message coming from the function nodes to the
data nodes, a DFT operation would be needed to pass again
in the frequency domain. This procedure, that would overload
the OFDM detection strategy, is not needed for SC modulation
because the symbols generated at the transmitter side, received
at the receiver side and transmitted over the wireless channel
874
r (l ) r (l ) , rˆ (l ) R (l )
DFT
(A) (B)
tˆ1(l 1)
tˆ (2l )
Coarse Fine
CFO&PHN CFO&PHN
Correction Correction
ˆ(l )
N 1 ˆ (l )
Selector
ˆ (l )
Fig. 2. Block diagram of an OFDM iterative receiver based on the DD
JFPE-BSPA technique. The system configuration in the l-th OFDM interval
is shown.
are always in the time domain. For this reason, to keep the
computational complexity of the proposed OFDM detector
closer to that of the competing strategies of [8] and [35] we
suggested not to modify the factor graph of Fig. 1 inserting
the variables referring to the transmitted data, and the data a
posteriori probabilities are not updated with the soft message
passing algorithm described above. On the other hand we
propose to use the same graph of Fig. 1 in a decision directed
(DD) fashion, where the known data exploited in Section III
are replaced by their hard decision to overcome the need of
extra DFT/IDFT operations as asserted above. Following this
way (and only in this way) we saw that the computational
complexity of the JFPE-BSPA can be kept close to that of the
estimator [8] and [35]. Moreover, simulation results show that
the adopted DD solution is able to achieve performance very
close to the ideal case and only a transcurable improvement
must be expected adopting the soft solution.
For this reason we describe below how the JFPE-BSPA,
after being exploited for system training, can be used in a
DD manner for data detection. In particular, if pilot data
are transmitted in the (l − 1)-th OFDM symbol interval,
the estimates ν̂ (l−1) of ν (l−1) and φ̂(l−1) of φ(l−1) can be
computed via the JFPE-BSPA and can be used to initialize
decision-directed CFO & PHN tracking. In fact, in the next
interval they can be used to correct the frequency error,
producing the residual ν̃ (l) = ν (l) − ν̂ (l−1) , and for reducing
the effect of the PHN. The last task can be accomplished
compensating for the phase error in l-th OFDM symbol on
the basis of the estimate of the last PHN sample evaluated
in the previous one, so that the residual phase error becomes
(l) (l) (l−1)
φ̃n = φn − φ̂N −1 , with n = 0, 1, ..., N −1. Then a decision
ã(l) can be taken on the data vector a(l) and can be used to
generate the new estimates ν̂ (l) and φ̂(l) to be employed in the
successive symbol interval. This procedure can be repeated
in all the following information symbol intervals until a new
pilot symbol is received and processed for retraining. A further
refinement in this procedure is introduced if, in the l-symbol
interval, the data vector a(l) is estimated again after CFO and
PHN compensation, producing the final estimate â(l) .
These ideas have been exploited in the design of the
iterative receiver structure shown in Fig. 2 and that can
be adopted in an OFDM system using an interleaved chan-
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Discard
nel coding scheme8 . In the l-th symbol interval the de-
Virtual Deinterleaver
Carriers tection/synchronization procedure evolves according to the
following steps. At the beginning the switch connects point A
to the multiplier and a (coarse) phase & frequency correction
is accomplished in the time domain received vector r(l) (5)
Equalization
&
Decoding
using the frequency estimate ν̂ (l−1) and the last element
(l−1)
φ̂N −1 of the noise vector φ̂(l−1) . This produces the vector
. (l−1) (l−1) (l−1)
a(l ) aˆ ( l )
r̃ = r(l) ⊗ t̂(l−1) , where t̂(l−1) = [t̂0
(l)
, t̂1 , ..., t̂N −1 ],
(l−1) (l−1)
JFPE-BSPA Interleaver
Data t̂n = exp(−j(2πnν̂ (l−1) + φ̂N −1 )) with n = 0, 1, ...,
Out
N − 1, and ⊗ denotes the Hadamard product. This vector
represents the input of a DFT generating the vector R̃(l) ;
this, after deinterleaving and equalization in the frequency
domain, feeds a channel decoder producing the data estimate
ã(l) . Then, the vector r(l) and an interleaved version of ã(l)
feed the JFPE-BSPA, that, after Nit iterations, generates the
(l)
estimates ν̂ (l) and {φ̂n , n = 0, 1, ..., N −1}. These estimates
are employed, after connecting point B to the multiplier, for
. (l)
a second (fine) correction r̂(l) = r(l) ⊗ t̂(l) , where t̂(l) = [t̂0 ,
(l) (l) (l) (l)
t̂1 , ..., t̂N −1 ] and t̂n = exp(−j(2πnν̂ (l) /Ts + φ̂n )), with
n = 0, 1, ..., N − 1. Then, the vector r̂(l) is processed exactly
in the same way as r̃(l) to generate the final data estimate â(l) .
Finally, we note that
(l)
1) ν̂ (l) and the selected sample φ̂N −1 are preserved for the
coarse correction procedure at the beginning of the next
symbol interval;
2) the complexity of the DD JFPE-BSPA is given by that of
its data-aided counterpart (see Table I) plus 6N log2 N
rms and 6N log2 N ras due to the extra DFT; similar
comments apply to the DD NP-FPC and to the DD RK-
FPC.
V. N UMERICAL R ESULTS
In our work, the performance of the data-aided JFPE-
BSPA, NP-FPC and RK-FPC and that of the iterative receiver
structures based on a DD use of three techniques have been as-
sessed by computer simulation. The receiver has been always
endowed with an ideal knowledge of the CIR and the proposed
simulations results are grouped in three subsections: (1) JFPE-
BSPA fed by the true transmitted data (known data or genie
aided) as illustrated in Section III; (2) JFPE-BSPA employed
in the DD fashion, like illustrated in Section IV, with uncoded
data; (3) DD JFPE-BSPA employed in the coded structure of
Fig. 2.
In all the following results it is always assumed that: (a)
the phase noise is modeled as a Wiener process with zero
mean and variance σφ2 = γ/N ; (b) the DFT order is N = 256
and the roll-off factor is α = 0.13, so that Nα = 112 and the
number of useful subcarriers is Nu = 225; (c) the length of the
cyclic prefix is Ncp = 30; (d) the SNR is defined as Eb /N0 ,
where Eb is the average received energy per information bit;
(e) the overall number of iterations of the SPA is Nit = 4;
(f) the PF algorithm adopts the thresholds εν = 10−10 and
εφ = 10−10 , and Npf = 2, so that the PF algorithm updates
the sample spaces after each couple of consecutive iterations;
8 A similar architecture can be also employed in the absence of channel
coding. In addition, the JFPE-BSPA can be easily replaced by the NP-FPC
or by the RK-FPC, both employed in a DD fashion.
MERLI and VITETTA: A FACTOR GRAPH APPROACH TO THE ITERATIVE DETECTION OF OFDM SIGNALS
Fig. 3. BER performance of coherent receivers employing the JFPE-BSPA,
the WPF-JFPE-BSPA, the RK-FPC and the NP-FPC. The error performance
of a coherent detector endowed with an ideal knowledge of both CFO and
PHN and that of a coherent detector exploiting only the pilot-based Moose’s
synchronizer (MFEC) are also shown for comparison. A QPSK modulation
is employed and the CFO & PHN estimation/compensation section is always
fed by the transmitted data.
(g) the channel model (1) is characterized by L = 16 taps and
by the exponential power delay profile [28]
1 − exp(−1/5)
σ 2 (l) = exp(−l/5)
1 − exp(−L/5)
with l = 0, 1, ..., 15.
A. JFPE-BSPA fed by true data (known data)
To assess the accuracy of above the JFPE-BSPA, NP-FPC
and RK-FPC, their impact on the performance of a coherent
receiver in which the PHN & CFO estimation/compensation
section is fed by the transmitted data has been analysed. Some
results are shown in Fig. 3, that compares the bit error rate
(BER) performance offered in this case by the JFPE-BSPA,
the WPF-JFPE-BSPA, the NP-FPC and the RK-FPC with that
of a coherent receiver operating in the absence of CFO and
PHN (lower bound, LB) and with that of a coherent receiver
exploiting the Moose Frequency Estimation and Correction
technique (MFEC) [24], a simple pilot aided synchronizer
where the correlation between two identical pilot OFDM
symbols is used to accomplished CFO estimation without
taking account the PHN process in the received signal. In this
case the following additional assumptions have been made: (1)
(l)
the channel symbols {ak } belong to a QPSK constellation;
(2) the channel is quasi static; (3) the CFO (the first PHN
(l)
sample) ν (l) ∈ U(−0.2, 0.2) ( φ0 ∈ U(−π/2, π/2)) for any
l, i.e. it is uniformly distributed over the interval [−0.2, 0.2]
([−π/2, π/2]) and changes abruptly between consecutive sym-
(l)
bols; (4) the PHN samples {φn , n = 1, 2, ..., N − 1} are
generated according to the Markov model (6); (5) the Wiener
process has variance γ = 0.1; (6) in the space discretization
of the JFPE-BSPA we have Mν = Mφ = 11 (case #1.a) or
Mν = Mφ = 17 (case #2.a); (7) in the space discretization
of the WPF-JFPE-BSPA we have Mν = Mφ = 25 (case
#1.b) or Mν = Mφ = 41 (case #2.b); (8) for any SNR the
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875
Fig. 4. BER performance of iterative coherent receivers employing the DD
JFPE-BSPA, the DD RK-FPC and the DD NP-FPC techniques. The error
performance of a coherent detector endowed with an ideal knowledge of
both CFO and PHN is also shown for comparison. A 4-QAM modulation is
employed.
overall number of transmitted OFDM symbols is not smaller
than 12000. We note that the performance of the both MFEC
and RK-FPC exhibits a large error floor; this is due to the
fact that the first technique estimates and corrects the CFO
only, neglecting the PHN contribution, whereas the second
(28)
one compensates for the CPE contribution only, not taking
into account the presence of ICI. The NP-FPC performs better
than the RK-FPC, since it compensates for both the CPE and
ICI effects, but does not substantially lower the error floor.
The results referring to the SPA-based techniques show that
the JFPE-BSPA performance improves with an increase of Mφ
and Mν and that it is close to the lower bound in case #2.b9 .
Moreover, they evidence that the WPF-JFPE-BSPA requires a
substantially larger complexity to achieve similar performance
as the JFPE-BSPA. For this reason the WPF-JFPE-BSPA is not
taken into consideration again in the following.
B. DD JFPE-BSPA in an uncoded system
Fig. 4 illustrates the BER performance of various DD
receivers based on the iterative architecture described in the
previous Section in the case of an uncoded transmission
employing a 4-QAM modulation format with Gray-mapping
[55]. The performance of a coherent receiver operating in the
absence of CFO and PHN (LB) is also shown for comparison.
In these results it is always assumed that: (1) the OFDM
transmission is organized in frames, each consisting of 20
information symbols, preceded by one pilot symbol for data-
aided CFO and PHN estimation & correction (the pilot symbol
rate is Rp = 1/20); (2) the Wiener phase noise has variance
γ = 0.01 and at the beginning of each pilot symbol the first
PHN sample is set to zero10 ; (3) the CIR is static over each
frame and independent CIR realizations over distinct frames
9 Simulation results have also evidenced that a further increase in M and
ν
Mφ produces a negligible performance gain.
10 Note that any constant component in the PHN process can be absorbed
in the CIR taps.
876
Fig. 5. BER performance of iterative coherent receivers employing the DD
JFPE-BSPA, the DD RK-FPC and the DD NP-FPC techniques. The error
performance of a coherent detector endowed with an ideal knowledge of both
CFO and PHN is also shown for comparison. A 16-QAM modulation with
convolutional coding and block interleaving is employed.
are used; (4) for any SNR the overall number of transmitted
frames is not smaller than 20000; (5) Mν = Mφ = 11 is used
in space discretization; (6) the residual CFO affecting the l-th
OFDM symbol is given by
(l)
ν (l) = νinc + (ν (l−1) − ν̂ (l−1) )
(l)
where ∈ U(−0.05, 0.05) represents an abrupt change in
νinc
the uncompensated CFO between the (l − 1)-th and the l-th
symbol. The results shown in Fig. 4 evidence that a receiver
based on the DD JFPE-BSPA can achieve a performance close
to the bound and substantially better than that offered by both
the NP-FPC and the RK-FPC. It is also worth noting that
the performance gap between the bound and the DD receivers
is not only due to estimation inaccuracies, but also to the
performance loss deriving from the use of pilot symbols.
C. DD JFPE-BSPA in a coded system
The simulation results shown in Fig. 5 refer to an inter-
leaved coded OFDM system, like that schematized in Fig. 2,
adopting a 16-QAM modulation scheme with Gray-mapping
[56] and a rate 1/2, 4 state binary convolutional encoder
with generators g1 = (7)8 and g2 = (2)8 combined with
15 × 15 = 225 block interleaver11 . All the other parameters
take on exactly the same values as those listed for the scenario
of Fig. 412 . The BER results confirm the superiority of the DD
JFPE-BSPA over the DD NP-FPC and DD RK-FPC in a coded
system employing a larger constellation.
VI. C ONCLUSIONS
In this paper a novel data-aided CFO & PHN estima-
tion/compensation algorithm for OFDM signals has been
11 The interlever contains all the coded symbols transmitted in a single
OFDM symbol excluding the virtual carriers and the cyclic prefix.
12 Since the code rate is 1/2 and 16-QAM is employed over each subcarrier,
the data rate is exactly the same as that of the uncoded system considered
above.
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illustrated. Its derivation is based on a factor graph approach
and relies on the sum-product algorithm. It has been also
shown that the proposed algorithm, if exploited in a decision-
directed fashion, can be employed in an iterative receiver,
jointly estimating data, CFO and PHN. Simulation results
have evidenced that this receiver structure offers excellent
performance, substantially outperforming all the other existing
algorithms and approaching that of an ideal coherent receiver,
at the price of a reasonable complexity increase.
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Filippo Zuccardi Merli was born in Correggio,
Italy, in July 1980. He received the Dr. Ing. degree in
electronic engineering (cum laude) in 2004 from the
University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Modena,
Italy, where he is currently working toward the Ph.D.
degree.
In 2006-2007 he spent one year as a Visiting
Scholar at the Department of Electrical Engineering
of the Columbia University, New York, NY. His
research interests lie in the areas of wireless com-
munications techniques, with particular emphasis on
multicarrier modulation, synchronization, multiuser detection and statistical
signal processing.
Giorgio M. Vitetta (S’89-M’91-SM99) was born in
Reggio Calabria, Italy, in April 1966. He received
the Dr. Ing. degree in electronic engineering (cum
laude) in 1990, and the Ph.D. degree in 1994, both
from the University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.
In 1992/1993, he spent a period at the University
of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zeland, doing
research for digital communications on fading chan-
nels. From 1995 to 1998, he was a Research Fellow
with the Department of Information Engineering,
University of Pisa. From 1998 to 2001, he was an
Associate Professor of Telecommunications with the University of Modena
and Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy, where he is currently a full Professor
of Telecommunications. His main research interests lie in the broad area
of communication theory, with particular emphasis on coded modulation,
synchronization and channel equalization.
Dr. Vitetta is serving as an Editor of both the IEEE T RANSACTIONSON
ON C OMMUNICATIONS and the IEEE T RANSACTIONS ON W IRELESS C OM -
MUNICATIONS .