Fine time tracking from coarse timing estimation in OFDM systems

A fine time tracking system is presented for orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems working in multipath fading channels. Due to the channel variability, coarse timing is the most common sampling synchronization level performed in these environments. However, in case of slow time variant channels, fine time tracking can help in some way to the channel equalization, improving the system performance. For this purpose, a fine time tracker with timing error detection schemes based on the symbol synchronization algorithms will be analyzed. Finally, the obtained results are compared with the performance of coarse time tracking systems.