Wireless communication apparatus having equalizer

1. A wireless communication apparatus, comprising hardware equalizer which receives a transmission line estimation sequence, and generates a transmission line characteristic estimation value for each of a plurality of sub-carriers, and smoothes a transmission line characteristic estimation value of a target sub-carrier to be processed and the transmission line characteristic estimation value of an adjacent sub-carrier of said plurality of sub-carriers,

wherein said equalizer comprises:

a determination unit which determines whether or not said adjacent sub-carrier comprises a null sub-carrier, and

a smoothing unit which smoothes the transmission line characteristic estimation value of said target sub-carrier by excluding the transmission line characteristic estimation value of said adjacent sub-carrier determined as a null sub-carrier by said determination unit, and

wherein said smoothing unit substitutes the transmission line characteristic estimation value of a sub-carrier determined as a null sub-carrier by said determination unit, for the transmission line characteristic estimation value of said target sub-carrier to execute smoothing in said smoothing unit.

2. The wireless communication apparatus according to claim 1 ,wherein said determination unit retains sub-carrier information that defines a sub-carrier among said plurality of sub-carriers, to which it is determined not to assign any data beforehand, as a null sub-carrier, and determines whether or not each sub-carrier comprises a null sub-carrier according to said retained sub-carrier information.

3. The wireless communication apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein said determination unit compares the transmission line characteristic estimation value of said target sub-carrier with that of said adjacent sub-carrier to determine whether or not a sub-carrier comprises a null sub-carrier.

4. The wireless communication apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein said determination unit further retains sub-carrier information that defines a direct current sub-carrier among said plurality of sub-carriers as a null sub-carrier, and determines whether or not a sub-carrier comprises a null sub-carrier according to said retained sub-carrier information.

5. The wireless communication apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein said determination unit further retains sub-carrier information that defines a frequency band end sub-carrier among said plurality of sub-carriers as a null sub-carrier, and determines whether or not a sub-carrier comprises a null sub-carrier according to said retained sub-carrier information.

6. The wireless communication apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein said determination unit determines whether or not n sets of sub-carriers (n: a positive integer) disposed consecutively from said target sub-carrier including a sub-carrier adjacent to said target sub-carrier and a sub-carrier adjacent to said adjacent sub-carrier comprise all null sub-carriers, and

wherein said smoothing unit substitutes the transmission line characteristic estimation value of a sub-carrier determined as a null sub-carrier by said determination unit for the transmission line characteristic estimation value of any one of said n sets of sub-carriers that are not determined as null sub-carriers, thereby executing smoothing.

7. The wireless communication apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein said wireless communication comprises a communication processing circuit.

8. A method of smoothing a transmission line characteristic estimation value of a plurality of sub-carriers, comprising:

identifying whether an adjacent sub-carrier adjacent to a target sub-carrier comprises a null sub-carrier, the adjacent sub-carrier and the target sub-carrier being provided within the plurality of sub-carriers; and

smoothing the transmission line characteristic estimation value of the plurality of sub-carriers without a transmission line characteristic estimation value of the adjacent sub-carrier when the adjacent sub-carrier comprises the null sub-carrier,

wherein said smoothing substitutes the transmission line characteristic estimation value of a sub-carrier identified as a null sub-carrier by said identifying, for the transmission line characteristic estimation value of said target sub-carrier to execute smoothing.

9. A receiver configured to receive a plurality of sub-carriers and to smooth a transmission line characteristic estimation value of the sub-carriers, the receiver comprising:

a determination unit configured to determine whether an adjacent sub-carrier adjacent to a target sub-carrier comprises a null sub-carrier or not, the adjacent and the target sub-carrier being provided within the sub-carriers; and

a smoothing unit configured to smooth the transmission line characteristic estimation value of the sub-carriers without a transmission line characteristic estimation value of the adjacent sub-carrier when the adjacent sub-carrier comprises the null sub-carrier,

wherein said smoothing unit substitutes the transmission line characteristic estimation value of a sub-carrier determined as a null sub-carrier by said determination unit, for the transmission line characteristic estimation value of said target sub-carrier to execute smoothing by said smoothing unit.

10. A receiver according to claim 9 , wherein the smoothing unit smoothes the transmission line characteristic estimation value of the sub-carrier with the transmission line characteristic estimation value of the adjacent sub-carrier when the adjacent sub-carrier is not the null sub-carrier.