Design of Timing Error Detectors for Orthogonal Space-Time Block Codes

We present a method for the design of low complexity timing error detectors in orthogonal space-time block coding (OSTBC) receivers. A general expression for the S-curve of timing error detectors is derived. Based on this result, we obtain sufficient conditions for a difference of threshold crossings timing estimate that is robust to channel fading. A number of timing error detectors for 3- and 4-transmit antenna codes are presented. The performance is evaluated by examining their tracking capabilities within a timing loop of an OSTBC receiver. Symbol-error-rate results are presented showing negligible loss due to timing synchronization. In addition, we study the performance as a function of the timing drift and show that the receiver is able to track up to the normalized timing drift bandwidth of 0.001