Coarse frame synchronisation for OFDM based wireless communication systems

This paper presents a method to fast and easily detect the beginning of a frame which is based on a special frame synchronisation symbol. The method is primarily useful for OFDM systems but can be applied for other systems as well. The implementation can be done with a low power analogue circuit which generates an event that is independent from the remaining signal processing, thus allowing one to switch of the unused circuitry. A digital solution is also given. It is shown that the method is sufficiently reliable for most wireless communication systems under consideration