The Eighth International Conference on Electronic Measurement and Instruments ICEMI2007

A Timing Synchronization and Frequency Offset Estimation

for OFDM Systems Based on PN (pseudo-noise) Sequence
Wang Lin Chang Huan
(School of Automation, Xi an University of Technology, Xi an 710048, China)
Abstract: Synchronization is a key problem of orthogonal
frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems. A method
of timing synchronization and frequency offset estimation for
OFDM systems based on PN sequence is proposed in this
paper, which utilizes one special training sequence to
overcome the shortcomings of the synchronization method
proposed by Schmidl & Cox
[1]
. Both theoretical analysis and
simulation show that the proposed method has a better
performance in timing synchronization and only a little
resource loss.
Keywords: OFDM; frequency offset estimation; timing
synchronization; PN Sequences
1 Introduction
The next-generation multimedia wireless
systems have attracted worldwide attention for their
broadband data transmission capacity and
economical feature. The common problem in
wireless communication systems is multi-path
interference. With the increase of transmission rate,
multi-path interference causes significant
deterioration to the quality of communication. Thus,
an ideal modulation scheme is desired to be efficient
in multi-path environment. The orthogonal
frequency division multiplexing (OFDM)
modulation scheme is one of such schemes.
High data rate is achieved between the
transmitter and the receiver once they are ideally
synchronized. However, there usually exists a small
timing and frequency offset, whose existence will
dramatically degrade the performance of the whole
OFDM systems. Hence, before signals can be

demodulated, OFDM symbols need to be
time-synchronized and carrier frequency offset
compensated. Many synchronization algorithms for
OFDM systems have been proposed, which can be
divided into three main categories: The first one is
based on specific training sequences at the beginning
of radio frame .For instance, schemes based on
duplicate structures of training signals are introduced
in refs. [1-3]; The second one is to maximize the
average log likelihood function with the cyclic prefix
inserted, as proposed in refs. [4]; The third one is of
a hybrid close-loop structure exploiting training
sequences and data-decision-feedback information,
as discussed in refs. [5]. In this paper, we propose an
effective synchronization scheme as a modification
to Schmidl&Coxs method
[1]
. This modified method
can eliminate the symbol timing plateau, while
avoids resource loss.
2 OFDM Systems Model

The base band model of OFDM systems is
shown in Fig.1. In the transmitter, the N serial input
symbols are first converted from serial to parallel to
form a vector of N symbols. (N is the number of
sub-carriers in OFDM systems). Then, the N
symbols are modulated onto N sub-carriers by the
IFFT, which are converted back from parallel to
serial (P/S) data symbols and a guard interval
g
N is
inserted before these data symbols. The resulting
OFDM symbols are serially transmitted over various
channels, whose duration of impulse response is
assumed to be less than
g
N . In the receiver, the
inverse operation is performed.
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The Eighth International Conference on Electronic Measurement and Instruments ICEMI2007









In discrete form, the output of the N-point IFFT can
be described as:
( )
1
0
1 2
exp , 0,1,2, , 1
N
n
n
j kn
s k X k N
N N
t

=
(
= =
(

_
" 1
where
n
X is the data symbol on the n-th sub-carrier,
N is the number of sub-carriers. Considering the
unknown symbol arrival time u and carrier frequency
offset f A , the received OFDM signals with additive
Gaussian noise n(k) is given by:
( ) ( )
2
exp( ) ( )
fk
r k s k j n k
N
t
u
A
= +
2
3 Schmidl & Cox method
Schmidl & Coxs synchronization algorithm was
proposed in 1997
[1]
, which includes two PN sequences
to finish synchronization. Table 1 illustrates the use of
PN sequences (c
1,k
, c
2,k
) in the training sequences for an
OFDM symbol with nine sub-carriers with the points
from a subset of a 256-QAM constellation.
g3.1 symbol timing synchronization method
The first training sequence in Table 1 contains two
identical halves in time domain after IFFT. According to

















IFF
T
D/A
C
h
a
n
n
e
l


A /D
Sync
S/P Remove
CP
FFT P/S
bit stream
S/P P/S Insert cp (N)
r(k)
bit stream
X
n s(k)

Fig. 1 Block Diagram of A Base Band OFDM System
the first training sequence where the first half is
identical to the second half, expect for a phase shift
caused by the carrier frequency offset. If the
conjugate of a sample from the first half is
multiplied by the corresponding sample from the
second half, the effect of the channel should cancel.
At the start of the frame, the products of each of
these pairs of samples will have approximately the
same phase, so the magnitude of the sum will be a
large value, and let the sum of the pairs of products
be:
/ 2 1
0
*
( )
/2
N
m
P d
d m d m N
r r

=
_
=
+ + +

3
The received energy for the second half-symbol is
defined by:
/ 2 1
0
/ 2
2
( )
N
m
d m N
R d r

=
+ +
_ =
4
The timing metric is given by:
2
2
( )
( )
( )
P d
M d
R d
=
5
Where d is a time index corresponding to the first
sample in a window of N samples. The timing metric
reaches a plateau (Fig.3) which leads to some
uncertainty as to the start of the frame.

Table 1 Illustrates of Use of PN Sequence for The Training Sequences
Freq.num.k -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4
c
1,k
7+7j 0 -7+7j 0 7+7j 0 7-7j 0 7+7j
c
2,k
5-5j -5-5j -5-5j -5+5j -5-5j 5+5j -5+5j 5-5j 5+5j
-j j -1 -1 1
2,
2
1,
c
k
v
k
c
k
=
v
k
is the differentially-modulated PN sequence on the even frequencies of the second training symbol
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The Eighth International Conference on Electronic Measurement and Instruments ICEMI2007
g3.2 frequency offset estimation method
Assume the frequency offset would be
f f o i f o
f f f + A = A A (
ffo
f A is fractional
frequency offset and
ifo
f A is integer frequency
offset),from the above symbol timing estimation
shown, near the best timing point, the main difference
between the two halves of the first training symbol
will be a phase difference of T f | t = A , then fraction
frequency offset estimation is / T
ffo
f | t
.
= A , after
the two symbols are frequency corrected by
/ T | t
.
(by multiplying the samples by ),
Let their FFTs be Y
2 / j t T
e
|
.

1,k
Y
2,k
.The PN sequence v
k

will appear at the output except it will be shifted by 2z

z is an integer positions because of the
uncompensated frequency shift of 2z/T. Let X be the
set of indices for the even frequency components:

The number of even positions shifted can be
calculated by finding to maximize g
.
2
* *
1, 2 2 , 2
( )
2
2
2 ( )
2 ,
Y v Y
k g k k g
k X
B g
Y
k
k X
_
+ +
e
=
_
e
6
With integer g spanning the range of possible
frequency offsets and W being the number of even
frequencies with the PN sequence. Then the frequency
offset estimate would be:
7
'
f / 2 / T g | t
A . .
A = + T
4 Modified Method
For eliminating the timing plateu caused by


Schmidl&Cox method, the samples of the modified
training symbol(excluding cyclic prefix) are
designed to be of the form(in the time domain):
$ % $ % $ % $ %
Where A represent samples of length L=N/8 in the
time domain. B is symmetry sequence of training
sequence A, as shown in Fig.2.
4.1 symbol timing synchronization algorithm
The timing metric of modified method is given by:
( )
3
( )
3
2
( )
3
P d
M d
R d
=
8
/ 2
( ) ( )( )
3
0
N
P d r d k d k
k
= + _
=
9
2
/ 2
( ) ( )
3
0
N
R d r d k
k
= + _
=
10

4.2 frequency offset estimation algorithm

From the above Schmidl&Cox methods frequency
offset estimation shown, near the best timing point,
the main difference between the first and the third
parts of modified training symbol will be a phase
difference of / 2 T f | t = A , then Integer frequency
offset estimation can be gotten by
2 / f T | t
.
A =
L I R
and the main difference
between the first and the seventh parts of modified
training symbol will be a phase difference of
3 / T f
{ } W W W W
2 | t = A , then Frequency offset coarse estimation
can 2 / 3 f T | t
.
A =
I I R
.

X , 2 ,..., 4 , 2 , 2 , 4 ,..., 2 , + =
Fig. 2 Training Sequence Structure of Modified Algorithm
a b c c a a b c c b a b c c b a a c c b a
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The Eighth International Conference on Electronic Measurement and Instruments ICEMI2007
5 Results and Analysis
Performance of the modified algorithm in the
paper has been carried by the computer
simulation .In the simulation process, the system
used is 1024 sub-carriers ,100 point guard interval,
QAM modulationunder AWGN channel of no
intersymbol interference. We construct a Gaussian
noise generator for analoging noise and use a random
generator for producing frequency offset f A ( in
02/ T
FFT
) ,then we will add noise and frequency
offset generated to the transmitted signal.
The timing metrics of Schimdl & Cox method
and modified method are shown in Fig.3the
modified method eliminate the timing plateau and
have steeper roll-off timing metric off the correct
timing point .
Fig. 4 has given out the mean square error of the
modified method in different signal-to-noiseAs
Fig.4 shown ,the difference of received signals and
transmitted signals is very small.It can accurately
renew the original signal.

Fig.3 Timing Metric Curve of Schimd&Cox
and The Modified Method

Fig. 4 Mean Square Error of The Modified
Method in Different Signal-to-Noise
6 Conclusion
Based on the training sequence structure of
Schmidl & Cox synchronization method, we design a
proper training sequence structure in the modified
method, which exists symmetry in the time domain
and only uses a training symbol to achieve
synchronization problems of OFDM systems.
The modified method can eliminates the timing
plateau caused by Schmidl&Cox synchronization
method for OFDM systems and reduces the
computation complexion and improves spectrum
resources efficiency.
References
[1]. T.M.Schmidl and D.C.Cox, Robust frequency and timing
synchronization for OFDM,IEEE Trans .on
Comms.Vol.45,No.12,Dec 1997,pp.1613-1621.
[2]. PARK Byungjoon, A novel timing estimation method
for OFDM systems[J]. IEEE Communications Letter, 2003,
7(5):239-241.
[3]. P.H. MOOSE, A Technique for Orthogonal Frequency
Division Multiplexing Frequency Offset Correction,
[J].IEEE Trans. Commun . Vol.42, pp. 2908-2914, 1994.
[4]. J.-J.van de Beek, M. Sandell, P .O. Borjesson, ML
estimation of timing and frequency offset in OFDM
systems, IEEE Trans On Signal
Processing,vol.45,pp.1800-1805,Jul.1997.
[5]. BOLCSKEI H. Blind estimation of symbol timing and
carrier frequency offset in wireless OFDM systems[J].IEEE
Transactions on Communication,2001,49(6):988-996.
[6]. M.Luise and R.Reggiannini, Carrier Frequency
Acquisition and Tracking for OFDM Systems, IEEE
Trans.Commun.,
Author Biography
ChangHuan(1982-) was born in China. She received the
B.S.degree in electrical engineering from Xinjiang Normal
University. She is now a M.S. candidate at School of
Automation, Xian University of Technology. Her areas of
research interests include communication theory and statical
signal processing.
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