Channel estimation error-aware timing correction method for MBSFN in LTE

Time tracking for Mobile Broadcast Single Frequency Network (MBSFN) subframes is known to be difficult due to very long delay spread channels. These kinds of channels induce several issues, e.g., Inter Symbol Interference (ISI), Inter Carrier Interference (ICI), Channel Estimation (CE) errors, which limit the throughput performance. In this paper, we propose an approach for timing correction, estimating the frame start time (FST) that maximizes the observed SINR. In contrast to the existing literature, we include the CE error besides the ISI and ICI into the analysis. For the simplicity of analysis, we consider linear interpolation method for CE. In particular, we show that the FST based on EAP need not be the best for the system performance. Moreover, our proposed alternate frame start time yields better system performance by balancing the ISI, ICI and CE error in effect. We then extend this method taking into account the practical limitations. Using simulation, we show that the proposed algorithm provides performance gain in the range of 3-8dB over conventional methods.