Frame synchronization based on multiple frame observations

We consider frame synchronization for fixed frame length communication system with periodically embedded sync words. In the past few decades, numerous researchers have made significant contributions in various aspects. However, it is almost surprising that a scrutinization over the literature reveals to us an important common assumption: frame synchronization decision-making through single-frame observation. Intuition tells us that an enlarged multiple-frame observation set bears the potential to reduce sync word identification ambiguities and also to combat multi-path fading through ¿frame diversity¿. The objective of this work is thus to characterize the performance improvement of using multiple-frame decision rules rather than the single-frame decision rules considered in the previous work. We select the work of Lui and Tan as our standing point, and have conducted a comparative study in a very comprehensive manner. In particular, we shall show that the benefits of multipleframe based decision rules can be substantial. For example, in many cases, the performance of the correlation rule based on double-frame observation is superior to that of the optimum maximum likelihood rule with single-frame observation. While further enlarging the observation period beyond double frames was found to yield diminishing returns.