Symbol time synchronization method for OFDM systems

Abstract

A symbol time synchronization method for OFDM systems is disclosed. The invention presents a joint maximum-likelihood (ML) synchronization method for symbol time offset (STO) in OFDM systems. The method is developed in frequency domain under time-variant multipath channels. By analyzing the received frequency-domain data, a mathematical model for the joint effects of symbol time offset (STO), carrier frequency offset (CFO) and sampling clock frequency offset (SCFO) is derived. The results are used to formulate a log-likelihood function of two consecutive symbols. The joint estimation's method is robust, because it exhibits high performances in high mobility and time-variant multipath fading channels.