A novel time synchronization for 3GPP LTE cell search

In the cell search scheme of 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE), time synchronization is the crucial process in the synchronization procedure. Based on partial correlation algorithm which can combat the frequency offset, we proposed a new symbol timing synchronization algorithm which combined with differential correlation and the method for accumulation of the received signals. In order to reduce the computational load of the proposed algorithm, the correlation between the sum of three groups of local PSS sequence and the received signals was employed. Both theory analysis and simulation results show that the proposed algorithm has good performance in AWGN and EVA 70 channel, and improves the timing accuracy compare to the conventional cross-correlation algorithm.