Timing Synchronization for Real-Valued Orthogonal Space-Time Block Codes

Low complexity timing error detectors for rate one orthogonal space-time block codes with real modulation are presented. For 2-, 3- and 4-transmit antenna codes, we derive robust timing error estimators and obtain analytical expressions for the estimation error variance and the signal-to-noise ratio. The performance is evaluated by examining the estimator´s tracking capabilities in a system operating over a frequency-flat Rayleigh fading environment. The bit-error-rate results are presented showing degradation due to timing synchronization of less than 0.5 dB. In addition, we study the performance as a function of the timing drift and show that the timing loop is able to track up to normalized timing drift bandwidth of 0.001. Perfect channel state information at the receiver is assumed throughout the paper