A blind iterative carrier frequency offset estimator based on a Kalman approach for an interleaved OFDMA uplink system

When dealing with uplink transmissions of a coded orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) system, frequency synchronization has to be addressed. To this end, we propose a blind carrier frequency offset (CFO) estimator based on an iterative architecture that combines the socalled minimum mean square error successive detector and a Kalman algorithm, i.e. the extended Kalman filter, the unscented Kalman filter and the central difference Kalman filter. Unlike the actual open literature, no training sequence in our CFO estimation is required. In addition, the computational cost of our approach is moderate. When considering an interleaved OFDMA uplink system over a doubly Rayleigh fading channel, simulations results clearly show the efficiency of the proposed algorithm in terms of CFO estimation and bit error rate performances.