Abstract
The advancement in wireless communication applications encourages the use of effective 2 and efficient channel estimation (CE) techniques because of the varying behaviour of the Rayleigh 3 fading channel. In most cases, the emphasis of most proposed CE schemes is to improve the CE 4 performance and complexity for ensuring quality signal reception and improved system throughput. 5 Candidate waveforms whose designs are based on filter bank multi-carrier (FBMC) modulation 6 techniques such as filter bank orthogonal frequency division multiplexing based on offset quadrature 7 amplitude modulation (OFDM-OQAM), universal filtered multicarrier (UFMC) and generalised 8 frequency division multiplexing based on offset quadrature amplitude modulation (GFDM-OQAM) 9 are no exception to the use of these proposed CE techniques in the literature. These schemes are 10 considered as potential waveform candidates for the physical/media access control layer of the 11 emerging fifth generation (5G) networks. Therefore, pinpoint CE techniques represent an important 12 requirement for these waveforms to attain their full potentials. In this regard, this paper reviews 13 the concept of CE as applicable to these waveforms as well as other waveform candidates under 14 consideration in the emerging 5G networks. Since the design of the majority of the waveform