Preamble structure for single frequency cellular systems using orthogonal frequency division multiplexing

A preamble structure is proposed for single frequency cellular systems using orthogonal frequency division multiplexing. The preamble has a repeating pattern in time domain, from which a subscriber station can acquire the frame timing and the carrier frequency offset. Preambles of neighbor cells use an identical set of subcarriers that are modulated with different codes in frequency domain. From the cross-correlations with a set of candidate codes, the subscriber station can monitor the received preamble signals to find the best cell to get associated with. Computer simulations are performed to verify the performances of the initial synchronizations and the cell search.