Blind Symbol Synchronization for OFDM Systems in Multipath Fading Channels

In this paper, a new blind symbol synchronization algorithm is presented for orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) systems. The proposed algorithm extracts the timing which is not disturbed by delay spread within the guard interval by utilizing the cyclic prefix. A new timing function is introduced. By detecting the down-turn transition timing of the function, the symbol synchronization can be obtained. The power delay profile of the fading channels is unnecessary. Simulation results show that in high SNR, the performance of proposed algorithm is better than conventional CP-based algorithms in multipath fading channels.