Design and Implementation of an OFDM WLAN Synchronizer

With the advent of OFDM for WLAN communications, as exemplified by IEEE 802.11a, it has become imperative to have efficient and reliable synchronization algorithms for OFDM WLAN receivers. The main challenges with synchronization deal with the delay spread and frequency offset introduced by the wireless channel. In this work, rigorous research is done into OFDM WLAN synchronization algorithms, and a thorough synchronizer implementation is presented. This synchronizer performs packet detection, frequency offset estimation, and time offset estimation. Competing timing offset estimation algorithms are compared under a variety of channel conditions, with varying delay spreads, frequency offsets, and channel SNR. The metrics used to select between competing algorithms are statistical variance, and incremental hardware complexity. The timing offset estimation algorithms chosen are a dropoff detection algorithm for coarse timing offset estimation, and a quantized cross-correlator with a maximum detector for fine timing offset estimation

Low Complexity Time Synchronization Algorithm for OFDM Systems with Repetitive Preambles

In this paper, a new time synchronization algorithm for OFDM systems with repetitive preamble is proposed. This algorithm makes use of coarse and fine time estimation; the fine time estimation is performed using a cross-correlation similar to previous proposals in the literature, whereas the coarse time estimation is made using a new metric and an iterative search of the last sample of the repetitive preamble. A complete analysis of the new metric is included, as well as a wide performance comparison, for multipath channel and carrier frequency offset, with the main time synchronization algorithms found in the literature. Finally, the complexity of the VLSI implementation of this proposal is discussed. © 2011 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.This work was supported by the Spanish Ministerio de Educacion y Ciencia under grants TEC2006-14204-C02-01 and TEC2008-06787.Canet Subiela, MJ.; Almenar Terre, V.; Flores Asenjo, SJ.; Valls Coquillat, J. (2012). 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SYNCHRONIZATION AND RESOURCE ALLOCATION IN DOWNLINK OFDM SYSTEMS

The next generation (4G) wireless systems are expected to provide universal personal and multimedia communications with seamless connection and very high rate transmissions and without regard to the users’ mobility and location. OFDM technique is recognized as one of the leading candidates to provide the wireless signalling for 4G systems. The major challenges in downlink multiuser OFDM based 4G systems include the wireless channel, the synchronization and radio resource management. Thus algorithms are required to achieve accurate timing and frequency offset estimation and the efficient utilization of radio resources such as subcarrier, bit and power allocation. The objectives of the thesis are of two fields. Firstly, we presented the frequency offset estimation algorithms for OFDM systems. Building our work upon the classic single user OFDM architecture, we proposed two FFT-based frequency offset estimation algorithms with low computational complexity. The computer simulation results and comparisons show that the proposed algorithms provide smaller error variance than previous well-known algorithm. Secondly, we presented the resource allocation algorithms for OFDM systems. Building our work upon the downlink multiuser OFDM architecture, we aimed to minimize the total transmit power by exploiting the system diversity through the management of subcarrier allocation, adaptive modulation and power allocation. Particularly, we focused on the dynamic resource allocation algorithms for multiuser OFDM system and multiuser MIMO-OFDM system. For the multiuser OFDM system, we proposed a lowiv complexity channel gain difference based subcarrier allocation algorithm. For the multiuser MIMO-OFDM system, we proposed a unit-power based subcarrier allocation algorithm. These proposed algorithms are all combined with the optimal bit allocation algorithm to achieve the minimal total transmit power. The numerical results and comparisons with various conventional nonadaptive and adaptive algorithmic approaches are provided to show that the proposed resource allocation algorithms improve the system efficiencies and performance given that the Quality of Service (QoS) for each user is guaranteed. The simulation work of this project is based on hand written codes in the platform of the MATLAB R2007b

Scattered Pilots and Virtual Carriers Based Frequency Offset Tracking for OFDM Systems: Algorithms, Identifiability, and Performance Analysis

In this paper, we propose a novel carrier frequency offset (CFO) tracking algorithm for orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems by exploiting scattered pilot carriers and virtual carriers embedded in the existing OFDM standards. Assuming that the channel remains constant during two consecutive OFDM blocks and perfect timing, a CFO tracking algorithm is proposed using the limited number of pilot carriers in each OFDM block. Identifiability of this pilot based algorithm is fully discussed under the noise free environment, and a constellation rotation strategy is proposed to eliminate the c-ambiguity for arbitrary constellations. A weighted algorithm is then proposed by considering both scattered pilots and virtual carriers. We find that, the pilots increase the performance accuracy of the algorithm, while the virtual carriers reduce the chance of CFO outlier. Therefore, the proposed tracking algorithm is able to achieve full range CFO estimation, can be used before channel estimation, and could provide improved performance compared to existing algorithms. The asymptotic mean square error (MSE) of the proposed algorithm is derived and simulation results agree with the theoretical analysis

An OFDM Signal Identification Method for Wireless Communications Systems

Distinction of OFDM signals from single carrier signals is highly important for adaptive receiver algorithms and signal identification applications. OFDM signals exhibit Gaussian characteristics in time domain and fourth order cumulants of Gaussian distributed signals vanish in contrary to the cumulants of other signals. Thus fourth order cumulants can be utilized for OFDM signal identification. In this paper, first, formulations of the estimates of the fourth order cumulants for OFDM signals are provided. Then it is shown these estimates are affected significantly from the wireless channel impairments, frequency offset, phase offset and sampling mismatch. To overcome these problems, a general chi-square constant false alarm rate Gaussianity test which employs estimates of cumulants and their covariances is adapted to the specific case of wireless OFDM signals. Estimation of the covariance matrix of the fourth order cumulants are greatly simplified peculiar to the OFDM signals. A measurement setup is developed to analyze the performance of the identification method and for comparison purposes. A parametric measurement analysis is provided depending on modulation order, signal to noise ratio, number of symbols, and degree of freedom of the underlying test. The proposed method outperforms statistical tests which are based on fixed thresholds or empirical values, while a priori information requirement and complexity of the proposed method are lower than the coherent identification techniques