A Symbol Timing Synchronization Algorithm for WiMAX OFDM

OFDM has been successfully deployed in many different radio communications systems, one of the main problems is OFDM synchronization that needs to be overcome. OFDM has many advantages in terms of resilience to fading, reflections etc. The correct OFDM synchronization enables the error rates to be kept to a minimum, whereas if the system is not accurately synchronized, then errors will result and the system will become less effective. This present Schmidl and Cox algorithm as a symbol timing synchronization algorithm for an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) system is implemented to make OFDM as a complete synchronization system. This algorithm is based on the preamble structure defined in IEEE 802.16d. The algorithm improves the characteristic of timing metric by adding the preamble´s structure. In this method the sequences of the receiver and the second OFDM sign sequence of the long preamble are made cross-correlation. Finally the peak value is observed. Simulation results show that the timing will be more accurate when compared with other conventional approaches.