Pilotless Frame Synchronization for LDPC-Coded Transmission Systems

We present a pilotless frame synchronization approach that exploits feedback from a low-density parity-check (LDPC) code decoder. The synchronizer is based on syndrome checks using hard decisions from the channel observations. The bandwidth overhead associated with pilot symbols in conventional receiver architectures is eliminated while providing sufficient synchronization performance. An LDPC decoder coupled with our synchronizer exhibits negligible frame error rate degradation over a system with perfect synchronization. The complexity of the frame synchronizer is kept relatively low due to its XOR-based approach.