OFDM Symbol Synchronization Using Frequency Domain Pilots in Time Domain

In this paper, we describe and evaluate a novel time synchronization algorithm for OFDM systems robust to channels with long echoes. Most of the OFDM based standards provide known pilots in the frequency domain for channel estimation purposes. The basic idea of our contribution consists of interpreting the frequency domain pilots in the time domain and using them to obtain a rough channel estimation prior to the receiver discrete Fourier transform (DFT). The rough channel estimation is then used to perform the fine time synchronization.