A novel implementation of timing synchronization based on convolution for GBPS OFDM trial system

In this paper, a novel timing synchronization algorithm and its implementation scheme are presented. Although conventional synchronization algorithm with correlation method has good performance, it is difficult to implement in hardware due to its high resource consumption and long capture time. The proposed method focuses on addressing these problems for practical application in orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems. Instead of correlation, the novel algorithm based on preamble adopts convolution to accelerate the frame capture procedure. Implemented on a Virtex-5 series Xilinx FPGA, at least 85% of block RAMs are saved while comparable or even better performance is achieved by using the algorithm. Finally, the scheme is proven stable and efficient in a Gbps OFDM trial system.