A Joint Synchronization Algorithm for OFDM Systems

This work presents a joint maximum-likelihood (ML) synchronization algorithm for symbol time (ST) offset (STO), carrier frequency offset (CFO) and sampling clock frequency offset (SCFO) for OFDM systems. Unlike most existing techniques which are time-domain approaches considering only AWGN and/or static multipath conditions, the proposed algorithm 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 STO, CFO and SCFO is derived. The results are used to formulate a log-likelihood function of two consecutive symbols. Based on the function, a joint ML algorithm is proposed. The joint algorithm is both efficient and robust, because the three main synchronization issues are treated altogether. Simulation results exhibit high performances in time-variant multipath fading channels.