This thesis proposes designs for adaptive equalization and phase noise detection in an OFDM wireless system. It develops an adaptive equalization method using pilot signals to update the channel information for each OFDM symbol. This addresses the "singular channel" problem where noise is amplified. It also proposes detecting phase noise by analyzing the rotation of pilot signals affected by frequency offset and phase noise. This allows compensation of phase noise and improves tolerance to a loop bandwidth of 11 ppm and time constant of 25 kHz. Simulation results show the proposed methods improve performance over existing designs by up to 6 dB, enabling high-performance receivers for applications like IEEE 802.11 wireless LANs.