Mobility and Carrier Offset Modeling in OFDM

A carrier offset in OFDM system simulation is generally considered to be slowly time-varying, so that, over short simulation periods, it may be considered to be a constant quantity. However, depending on system mobility, carrier frequency, and communication duration, time-varying carrier offsets can be significant in a real physical environment. Few researchers have addressed this in their works. Those few who have, present simplified, vague, or inaccurate time-varying carrier offset models. The main goal of this paper is to present an accurate time- varying carrier offset model, and to provide guidelines for when the application of this model is crucial for correct OFDM system evaluation.