A method for channel response estimation for an OFDM communication system based on a certain normal training symbols plus one virtual training symbol begins with receiving at least one preamble symbol of a transmitted data frame. A first channel state information is estimated from the at least one preamble symbol. At least one signalling symbol is then received and equalized and a rate factor and a length factor are extracted from the at least one signalling symbol. A virtual training symbol is formed from the rate factor and the length factor. A second channel state information is estimated from the at least one preamble symbol and the virtual training symbol. The data symbols are equalized by performing channel correction on data symbols with the second channel estimation and pilot sub-carriers in each of the plurality of data symbols.
An improved LDPC encoding with concatenation rule and code size with packet lengths specified in octets is provided. The LDPC block size is selected to be an integer number of OFDM tones. The concatenation rule is an improvement of the shortening and puncturing scheme for low data rate. The improvement is two fold. First, the code length is selected based on the number of transmitted information bits in octets (HTLENGTH). Second, it is determined whether one extra OFDM symbol padding should be added based on the number of shortening bits in the last codeword and the available padding bits in the last OFDM symbol.
