Time and Frequency Synchronization for Multicarrier Transmission on Hexagonal Time-Frequency Lattice

In this paper, a novel synchronization acquisition approach, including preamble structure, time and frequency synchronization algorithms, is proposed for hexagonal multicarrier transmission (HMCT) system. Specifically, a novel signal acquisition scheme based on time–frequency subspace projection (TFSP) and its simplified form are proposed for reliable signal acquisition. Time and frequency synchronization is divided into three steps: 1) the coarse time offset (TO) and coarse fractional carrier frequency offset (CFO) estimation; 2) fine TO and integer CFO estimation; and 3) fine fractional CFO estimation. The closed-form Cramér–Rao lower bound of the proposed CFO estimation scheme is given. Theoretical analyses and simulation results show that the proposed preamble structure, time and frequency synchronization algorithms for HMCT system can obtain robust performance over doubly dispersive (DD) channel, and the simulation results show excellent agreement with theoretical analyses.