C25. Design and implementation of synchronization and cell search algorithms for LTE receiver

In this paper, we investigate the time and frequency synchronization algorithms as well as, the sector and cell search for the 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) downlink. The proposed algorithms rely on the synchronization and cell-specific reference signals and are, hence, compliant to most recent 3GPP specifications. Time and fractional frequency offset coarse synchronization are performed in the time domain using the cyclic prefix based auto-correlation, while the sector and cell search as well as the integer frequency offset are estimated in the frequency domain using the primary and secondary synchronization signals. All algorithms are evaluated under multipath channel conditions and an initial carrier frequency mismatch. Trading off high performance with reasonable implementation complexity, the algorithms are realized in hardware using a total logic area of 125,460 um2 in 0.13 um technology.