To analyze the performance of orthogonal matching pursuit (OMP)-based compressed channel estimation (CCE) with deterministic pilot patterns, we propose a mathematical framework by defining four normalized mean-square-errors (NMSEs): the total NMSE (NMSET), the NMSE on dominant channel components (NMSED), the NMSE caused by ‘lost errors’ (NMSEL) and the NMSE caused by ‘false alarms’ (NMSEF). Then, we derive a formula with a closed form for evaluating the upper-bound of NMSED in the ideal case (NMSED,UB). Using the proposed analytical framework, the main findings include: 1) theNMSED,UB is determined by the following four parameters: the deterministic pilot pattern, the maximum Doppler shift, the number of dominant multipath components and the SNR; 2) the NMSED,UB can be viewed as an approximation of practical NMSET in case that the probability of the successes of OMP exceeds a certain threshold, in which both NMSEL and NMSEF are neglectable; 3) using linear regression models, the practical bit-error-rate performance also can be predicted well based on the proposed NMSED,UB. We believe that the proposed framework provides a useful tool for adaptively optimizing pilot parameters according to rapidly time-varying channel conditions when using OMP based CCEs in mobile OFDM systems.