Robust nondata-aided symbol synchronization technique for OFDM systems

A novel technique to recover symbol timing of OFDM systems is proposed. The proposed technique does not require cyclic prefix, pilot signals, training symbols, or any other supplementary data, this will significantly improve the system power and bandwidth efficiency. The effect of carrier frequency offset was also considered in this work. Theoretical and simulation results have shown that symbol timing can be extracted for E_b/N₀ as low as -3 dB with carrier frequency offset that equals to 50% of the subchannel spacing. System performance is investigated in both multipath and AWGN channels.