Robust timing synchronization against narrowband interference for PLC systems

Timing synchronization is a challenging task in the power line channel, in which exists narrowband interference. In this paper, a timing synchronization approach robust against the narrowband interference is proposed. A narrowband interference detection module is employed to first detect the narrowband disturbance and provide prior knowledge for a digital adaptive filter. An adaptive filter can be configured flexibly according to the prior knowledge and enables to suppress the in-band interference. Besides, a digital front end with equivalent complex baseband structure is applied so that the out-of-band interference can also be attenuated to a large extent. Simulation results show that the influence of narrowband interference on the proposed timing synchronization approach is mitigated a lot.