Semi-Data-Aided carrier synchronization for QPSK burst transmissions

This paper deals with frequency estimation for QPSK burst-mode transmissions in AWGN channel. A semi- data-aided (SDA) feedforward estimator for estimation of the carrier frequency offset is proposed. According to the algorithm, known pilot symbols and unknown data symbols are used together in order that both estimation accuracy and spectral efficiency can be satisfied. The simulations show that the SDA estimator, which only use fewer pilot symbols, can provide a very good performance close to the CRLB with a large number of pilot symbols at moderately high signal-to-noise ratios.