A New Time Synchronization Technique for OFDM Systems

A new simple algorithm for OFDM symbol synchronization is proposed. The proposed algorithm does not assume that the first multipath component is the dominant one. Instead of using a threshold to detect the leading edge of an OFDM symbol, the proposed algorithm uses a metric which is calculated recursively. Two estimation methods are considered, one using the average of the metric results, and the other using the median. Performance results are given for two UWB channel models (CM1 and CM4), exponential, and Rayleigh fading channels which show that the proposed algorithm is superior to other algorithms, particularly at low signal to noise (SNR) ratios.