An efficient algorithm for joint carrier frequency offset and channel estimation in IEEE 802.16 OFDM systems

This paper develops a novel and simple algorithm to perform joint carrier frequency offset and channel estimation in orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems. Carrier frequency offset of upto several frequency subcarrier spacings has to be estimated and compensated in order to enhance the OFDM system performance. The time domain synchronization algorithms using the preamble structure provided for fixed broadband wireless OFDM uplink access (IEEE 802.16 LAN/MAN standards) can only measure a frequency offset with an ambiguity equal to an even number of subcarrier spacings, in case of the actual offset being more than a subcarrier spacing. Our proposed algorithm uses the received preamble to jointly estimate this remaining integer part of the frequency offset and the initial channel impulse response using a least squares criterion in an iterative manner. Computer simulations show that the proposed estimator is very robust at low signal to noise ratios (SNRs) and operate near the Cramer-Rao bound for the variance of the frequency offset estimate.