Hardware apparatus for conditioning pilot symbols for channel estimation using adaptive low-pass filtering

1. A hardware apparatus for conditioning pilot symbols for channel estimation, wherein the pilot symbols are transmitted by a base station and are received by a mobile radio, and the pilot symbols are known to the mobile radio, the hardware apparatus comprising:

a time-division multiplex low-pass filter unit configured to filter the received pilot symbols, and having, between its input and its output, a switchable feedback loop configured to vary the number of filter passes of the pilot symbols through the low-pass filter,

wherein the feedback loop is configured to produce at least two low-pass filter stages in time-division multiplex mode with filter coefficients and scaling factors.

2. A hardware apparatus for conditioning pilot symbols for channel estimation, wherein the pilot symbols are transmitted by a base station and are received by a mobile radio, and the pilot symbols are known to the mobile radio, the hardware apparatus comprising:

a time-division multiplexed low-pass filter unit configured to filter the received pilot symbols, and having, between its input and its output, a switchable feedback loop configured to vary the number of filter passes of the pilot symbols through the low-pass filter; and

a multiplexer connected upstream of the low-pass filter unit, having a first input coupled to the output of the low-pass filter unit, and a second input configured to be fed the received pilot symbols.

3. The hardware apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the low-pass filter unit has an IIR low-pass filter configured to produce the at least two filter stages in time-division multiplex mode.

4. The hardware apparatus according to claim 3 , further comprising:

a first buffer store configured to provide first values for main registers in the IIR low-pass filter, and

a second buffer store configured to buffer-store second values which are output from the main registers in the IIR low-pass filter.

5. The hardware apparatus according to claim 4 , wherein

a pilot symbol filtered using the IIR low-pass filter is stored in the second buffer store.

6. The hardware apparatus according to claim 4 , wherein

the function of the first buffer store is interchangeable with the function of the second buffer store.

7. The hardware apparatus according to claim 5 , wherein

the function of the first buffer store is interchangeable with the function of the second buffer store.

8. The hardware apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising:

first registers configured to store the filter coefficients, wherein the low-pass filter unit is fed, during its operation, with the filter coefficients; and

second registers, in which it is possible to store the filter coefficients during the operation of the low-pass filter unit,

wherein the functions of the first registers and of the second registers are interchangeable.

9. The hardware apparatus according to claim 8 , further comprising:

a digital signal processor configured to generate the filter coefficients.

10. The hardware apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein

the hardware apparatus conditions the pilot symbols received by various RAKE fingers in a time-division multiplex mode.

11. A hardware apparatus for conditioning pilot symbols for channel estimation, wherein the pilot symbols are transmitted by a base station and are received by a mobile radio, and the pilot symbols are known to the mobile radio, the hardware apparatus comprising:

a time-division multiplexed low-pass filter unit configured to filter the received pilot symbols, and having, between its input and its output, a switchable feedback loop configured to vary the number of filter passes of the pilot symbols through the low-pass filter; and

a control unit configured to control the hardware apparatus, wherein the control unit is configured to activate and deactivate the low-pass filter unit, in particular, and/or determine the number of feedback loops and filter stages through which a pilot symbol needs to pass and/or supply the filtered pilot symbol or a default value, particularly the value “0,” to a downstream unit, particularly a maximal-ratio combining unit.

12. The hardware apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising:

a unit configured to determine a relative speed of the mobile radio with respect to the base station, and/or

a unit configured to determine a signal-to-noise ratio which is present at the receiver output, wherein

a number of feedback loops or filter stages through which a pilot symbol needs to pass in the low-pass filter unit is dependent on the relative speed and/or the signal-to-noise ratio.

13. A method for operating a hardware apparatus according to claim 4 , comprising:

(1) loading first values from the first buffer store into the main registers in the IIR low-pass filter;

(2) filtering a pilot symbol in the IIR low-pass filter;

(3) storing at least some of the second values output from the main registers in the second buffer store; and

(4) repeating method steps (1) to (3) at least once, with the feedback path which can be switched in supplying the result of the filtering from method step to the IIR low-pass filter instead of the pilot symbol.

14. A channel estimator comprising:

a computation unit configured to multiply received pilot symbols by complex-conjugate known pilot symbols; and

a hardware apparatus configured to condition pilot symbols for channel estimation and comprising a time-division multiplexed low-pass filter unit configured to filter pilot symbols transmitted by a base station,

wherein the time-division multiplexed low-pass filter unit comprises, between its input and its output, a switchable feedback loop configured to vary the number of filter passes of the pilot symbols through the low-pass filter, and further configured to produce at least two low-pass filter stages in time-division multiplex mode with filter coefficients and scaling factors

wherein the computation unit and the hardware apparatus are connected in series.

15. A method for operating a hardware apparatus for conditioning pilot symbols for channel estimation, wherein the pilot symbols are transmitted by a base station and are received by a mobile radio, and the pilot symbols are known to the mobile radio, wherein the hardware apparatus comprises a time-division multiplexed low-pass filter unit comprising an IIR low-pass filter, and between its input and its output, a switchable feedback loop, a first buffer store for providing first values for main registers in the IIR low-pass filter, and a second buffer store for buffer-storing second values which are output from the main registers in the IIR low-pass filter, the method comprising:

(1) loading first values from the first buffer store into the main registers in the IIR low-pass filter;

(2) filtering a pilot symbol in the IIR low-pass filter, wherein the number of filter passes by the pilot symbol through the low-pass filter is variable;

(3) storing at least some of the second values output from the main registers in the second buffer store; and

(4) repeating method steps (1) to (3) at least once, with the feedback path which can be switched in supplying the result of the filtering from method step to the IIR low-pass filter instead of the pilot symbol.

16. The method according to claim 15 , wherein

the feedback loop is configured to produce at least two low-pass filter stages in time-division multiplex mode with various filter coefficients and scaling factors.

17. The method according to claim 15 , wherein a pilot symbol filtered using the IIR low-pass filter is stored in the second buffer store.

18. The method according to claim 15 , wherein

the function of the first buffer store is interchangeable with the function of the second buffer store.

19. The method according to claim 15 , wherein

the hardware apparatus conditions the pilot symbols received by various RAKE fingers in a time-division multiplex mode.

20. The hardware apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the number of filter passes by the pilot symbols is based on a relative speed between the mobile radio and the base station.

21. The method according to claim 15 , wherein the number of filter passes by the pilot symbols is based on a relative speed between the mobile radio and the base station.

22. A channel estimator comprising:

a computation unit configured to multiply received pilot symbols by complex-conjugate known pilot symbols; and

a hardware apparatus for conditioning pilot symbols for channel estimation and comprising a time-division multiplexed low-pass filter unit configured to filter pilot symbols transmitted by a base station;

wherein the time-division multiplexed low-pass filter unit comprises, between its input and its output, a switchable feedback loop configured to vary the number of filter passes of the pilot symbols through the low-pass filter, and a multiplexer connected upstream of the low- pass filter unit, having a first input coupled to the output of the low-pass filter unit, and a second input configured to be fed the received pilot symbols,

wherein the computation unit and the hardware apparatus are connected in series.