An efficient high-throughput VLSI architecture for a synchronization block applied to real-time optical OFDM systems

An efficient low-complexity VLSI architecture for timing synchronization of a real-time intensity modulation direct detection optical OFDM (IMDD-OOFDM) system is proposed, which results in a significant area reduction. This architecture calculates the correlation among cyclic prefix (CP) regions to estimate the beginning of the OFDM symbol. The proposed architecture utilizes only one functional unit for this purpose, while the throughput is devised for high data-rate optical OFDM systems. Synthesis results of this architecture proves an area saving of 31% compared to the previous work. Moreover, the performance of the correlation method is significantly improved due to a modification applied in the algorithm. Simulation results show that the proposed method is very promising for new optical OFDM systems where the number of subcarriers and CP length is usually lower than conventional wireless systems.