Attention-Aided MMSE for OFDM Channel Estimation: Learning Linear Filters with Attention

Abstract: In orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM), accurate channel estimation is crucial. Classical signal processing based approaches, such as minimum mean-squared error (MMSE) estimation, often require second-order statistics that are difficult to obtain in practice. Recent deep neural networks based methods have been introduced to address this; yet they often suffer from high complexity. This paper proposes an Attention-aided MMSE (A-MMSE), a novel model-based DNN framework that learns the optimal MMSE filter via the Attention Transformer. Once trained, the A-MMSE estimates the channel through a single linear operation for channel estimation, eliminating nonlinear activations during inference and thus reducing computational complexity. To enhance the learning efficiency of the A-MMSE, we develop a two-stage Attention encoder, designed to effectively capture the channel correlation structure. Additionally, a rank-adaptive extension of the proposed A-MMSE allows flexible trade-offs between complexity and channel estimation accuracy. Extensive simulations with 3GPP TDL channel models demonstrate that the proposed A-MMSE consistently outperforms other baseline methods in terms of normalized MSE across a wide range of SNR conditions. In particular, the A-MMSE and its rank-adaptive extension establish a new frontier in the performance complexity trade-off, redefining the standard for practical channel estimation methods.