Low complexity coarse estimator of carrier frequency offset for OFDM systems based on subcarrier detection

In OFDM systems, the carrier frequency offset is often normalized to the subcarrier spacing and can be divided into an integer part and a fractional part. A novel coarse frequency offset estimation algorithm for OFDM systems, based on subcarrier detection, is proposed to estimate the integer part. It utilizes the subcarriers that do not transmit information bits, to reduce the range of estimation. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm has a low complexity advantage over the conventional algorithm while maintaining approximately the same performance.