Temporal joint searcher and channel estimators

A wireless communication receiver comprises a joint searcher and channel estimator which provides a channel estimate which can take into consideration a doppler shift occasioned. The joint searcher and channel estimator concurrently considers plural signals received by an antenna element of an array, the plural signals being obtained from a series of successive sets of pilot data as detected by the antenna element. The joint searcher and channel estimator determines the time of arrival and the channel coefficient and then applies the channel coefficient and the time of arrival to a detector, which provides, e.g., a symbol estimate. The joint searcher and channel estimator is a two dimensional unit, with a first dimension being referenced by a time index of the sampling window employed for each of the sets of pilot data and a second dimension being a temporal dimension imparted by the time interval reflected by the successive sets of pilot data.