SYNCHRONIZATION FOR RF CARRIER FREQUENCY HOPPED OFDM.

ANALYSIS AND SIMULATION

John E. Kleider, Steve Gifford, Ghassan Maalouli, Scott Chuprun
General Dynamics, Decision Systems, Scottsdale, Arizona, USA 85257
john.kleider, steve.gifford, ghassan.maalouli, scott.chuprun @gd-decisionsystems.com
and
Brian Sadler
A m y Research Laboratory, Adelphi, MD, USA
bsadler@arl.army.mil

ABSTRACT'
In this work, we apply RF carrier frequency hopping to
Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing ( F H OFDM) and study the hap rate capability using realistic
performance of signal acquisitiodsynchronizafion of the
unknown time and frequency ofset parameters. OFDM
synchronization is a challenging task without RF carrier
hopping due to OFDM's sensitivity to time and frequency
ofJsers. Given suficient synchronization estimation performance is achieved, our objective is to determine the
hop rate capabilities f o r OFDM using fwo different dataaided synchronization approaches. The first method is
based on sending information in a preamble before the
OFDM payload symbol. The second method embeds
known s.ynchronization information directly into the
OFDM symbol stream. Using differential QPSK-OFDM
modulation and spectral efficiency greater than I bps/Hz,
results indicate that suficient synchronization performance can be achieved f o r hop rates greater than 6 and I
khoyshec f o r the preamble- and embedded-based synchronizers, respectively.
1. INTRODUCTION
Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) is
now being adopted for various standards, such as 802.1la,
802.16, asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL), and
wireless local area networks (WLAN) for spectrally efficient very high data rate wireless services [I]. These standards are designed to operate well in multipath channels,
but are not very reliable in mobile frequency hopped
channels used for anti-jam operation in ARMY tactical
communications. ARMY battlefield communication systems will experience time-frequency synchronization off* Prepared through collaborative participation in \he Collabomtive Technology
Alliance forCommunicationr & Networks sponsored by the U S Army Research
I.abonIory under Coopenlive Agreement DAAD19-01-2-0011. T h e U.S. Government is aulhonred IO reproduce and dislnbute reprints for Government purposer notwithstanding any copyn%htnotation thereon. me Views and conclusions contained in this document am lhosc of the aulhon and should no1 be
interpreled as lPpreSenting the official Policies. either expressed or implied. of
the Army Research Lubonto;y or the U S . Govemmenf.
0 2003 General Dynamics. All cighrr resewed.

sets between the transmit and receive nodes due to oscillator drift, free space propagation delay, communication
node motion, multipath and channel variation due to
specular changes in the operating environment. Due to its
spectral efficiency, OF'DM is an attractive physical layer
waveform for ad-hoc networking, but OFDM's sensitivity
to synchronization error requires accurate time and frequency offset estimation 121. In addition, when operated
with RF carrier frequency hopping for anti-jam (AJ) operation, the timing and frequency offsets will change for
each new hop frequency. We assume-the synchronization
offset parameters change from dwell to dwell, requiring
fresh acquisition, but are stationary during each burst.
One conventional technique proposed for OF'DM systems is to synchronize on a repeated OFDM data symbol
[2]. Synchronization signal detection is performed by correlating samples that are spaced one or half a symbol
apart. Given a threshold criterion is satisfied, timing is
then determined from the maximum correlation amplitude
sample index and frequency offset is calculated from the
argument of the correlation peak. With this approach,
however, the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) performance will suffer when severe inter-symbol interference (ISI) occurs, due to reduced synchronizer correlation
energy. Our approach is to utilize data-aided techniques to
improve synchronization performance when short dwell
times are required for frequency hopping operation.
Two synchronization methods are considered for this
work, one based on transmitting a known pseudo-noise
(PN) preamble prior to the OFDM payload data [31 and
one based on embedding (superimposing) the PN synchronization information directly into the OEDM payload data
(41. Both techniques are attractive for FH-OFDM signal
acquisitionkynchronization because a sharp synchronization amplitude peak is created with less ambiguity in the
peak than for OFDM cyclic prefix-based synchronization
methods. A sharp peak reduces the timing estimation errors, with the PN correlation method exhibiting lower
probability of missing the sync signal and lower probability of false detection [51. Both synchronization methods
considered in this work produce exceptional accuracy for

...
...

I
Figure I. Preamble- and embedded-based synchronizer,
transmitted data-aided structures and receiver correlator.
timing acquisition, but also provide frequency offset estimates of sufficiently low variance for proper OFDM operation in both AWGN channels and Rayleigh fading
[3][4][5]. This work, however, will consider detection
probability for frequency hopped OFDM signal acquisition by simulating and analyzing the ROC in t e r n of
probability of missing (P,) the sync signal, given one was
transmitted, and the probability of false detection (Po of a
sync signal, given no sync information is transmitted.
This paper is organized as follows. Section 2 provides
a description of the preamble and embedded synchronization methods. Section 3 provides an analysis of the ROC
performance of both synchronizer types, while Section 4
describes the structure of frequency hopping an OFDM
waveform, with frequency hopping performance results. A
conclusion is then provided in Section 5.
PREAMBLE & EMBEDDED SYNC
Figure 1 shows a block diagram of the synchronization
scheme using the preamble and embedded signal structures. The same correlator can be used for both methods,
and software adjustments can he made to program the correlator length according to the unique performance requirements for each respective scheme. For both signaling
structures, the objective is to estimate the timing location
of the start of the OFDM payload and obtain a reliable
frequency-offset estimate using the data-aided information
only. For high RF carrier hopping rates, this imposes a
problem of estimating this information reliably within the
frequency hop dwell time with very limited information.
The main parts of the synchronizer (for both methods)
are a correlator and a multiplier that multiplies correlator
outputs Kt samples apart. This structure is shown in Figure
1. A first correlation is performed with the known PNsequence of length K , and is denoted as a sub-correlator
output. When the received sequence coincides with the

2.

'

Note: K represents the "subsorrelatof' lengrh. which is equal 10 Kp and K. for

the preamble and embedded schemes. respectively.

known one, a large peak occurs with a phase corresponding to the phase of the channel. If no sync signal is present the sub-correlator output is noise only. K samples
later, the conjugate of the sub-correlator output is then
multiplied by the previous sub-correlator output ( K + 1
samples before). Thus, the sub-correlator peaks distanced
by K samples will produce a large signal with a phase shift
proportional to the frequency offset. Incorrect correlation
products will result in small random like signals. Time
synchronization is achieved by comparing the correlation
product with a threshold proportional to the received
power. Subsequently, once the detection threshold is
crossed, the frequency offset is calculated from the phase
of the timing signal.
In the preamble signaling scheme [ 5 ] , the sync information is composed of a PN-sequence derived from an msequence in the first half of the preamble, followed by an
exact copy in the second half of the preamble. Each sample of the original K/2 sample m-sequences is repeated
with a guard interval between the end of the preamble and
the beginning of the OFDM payload signal. The total
length of the PN preamble, based on the copy and repeat
operation, is 2 K samples long and is set to he the real part
of the transmitted QAM PN-sequence. The quadrature
portion of the QAM PN-sequence is equal to a shifted version of the real part to reduce power variations in the preamble during transmission.
For the embedded signaling scheme, the synchronization parameters are estimated from a PN-sequence that is
added to the OFDM data signal at the transmitter. The
chip time of the sequence is typically double the sample
time ofthe OFDM base-band signal, such that spectrum of
OFDM signal with embedded sync information is nominally similar to the OFDM signal after transmit filtering.
When adding the sync information to the OFDM payload,
the amplitude of the sync information must he sufficient
such that the synchronization works well in low signal to
noise ratios. The total PN code length is set equal to the
OFDM symbol length. In the frequency-hopped scenario,
the OFDM symbol length should be short to achieve high
hop rates. This implies that the amplitude ratio of the
sync-to-OFDM data payload must be adjusted according to
ROC performance requirements at high hop rates.
In this work, the sync information for the embedded
approach is linearly summed to the time-domain OFDM
payload data as shown in Figure 2. The OFDM data is
scaled by .\ll-p before embedding the PN-sequence information, which is superimposed at an amplitude level of
&r[k),
where r[k] is the original PN-sequence sync
chips. Both the PN-sequence and data sequence have
unity power, and thus the sync-to-payload scaling ratio,

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3. ROC ANALYSIS

Figure 2: FH-OFDM embedded sync method

p , ensures that the composite transmitted signal also has

unity power. For the preamble scheme, during the sync

portion of the transmitted signal, x [ k ] = d[k], and during
the data portion of the signal, x[k] = r[k]. For the embedded scheme, x [ k ] = f i d [ k ] + & r [ k l .
When in synchronization mode, code multiplication is
performed to provide the de-spread synchronization peak
using essentially the same correlator (with exception of the
sub-comelator lengths Kp and K<) for both the preamble
and embedded schemes (as shown in the diagram of Figure
1). During synchronization in the embedded scheme, there
are two noise components acting to degrade the quality of
the correlator signal, the receiver noise and the OFDM
payload signal. The OFDM payload signal can be approximated by a Gaussian distribution [ 6 ] , and thus disturbs the sync signal in a manner similar to additive white
Gaussian noise (AWGN).
We denote x [ k ] and n [ k ] as the transmitted signal and
the receiver noise signal, respectively. The received signal
and noise powers are given by U: = E, IT, = Eix[kl12] and
U,'
N,/T, = E l n [ k ] l z ] , respectively, where T, is the total
symbol time. For the preamble scheme, the received SNR
=U: / U : .
For the embedded scheme the received data
sequence SNR is ( l - p ) u ~ / ( p f f ~ +and
f f ~the
) , code sequence SNR, SNR, = pu: /[((I - p)u: + U:)]. For robust
OFDM synchronization, p , must be high to maximize
SNR, for good sync performance, but low to provide good
data demodulation BER performance. In the embedded
scheme, data demodulation performance is degraded by
the two noise components, the receiver noise and the embedded sync signal. For high values of p , advanced receiver signal processing may be required, such as sync
information interference subtraction, to offset the conflicting performance attributes between the embedded synchronization and data demodulation. This, however, is
beyond the scope of this paper. Although, 0 < p < 1, a
typical value is 0.1. In the following analysis, we assume
an AWGN channel to determine the performance of the
ROC. Fading channels will be considered in future work.

The ensuing ROC analysis considers two receiver operating conditions. The first condition finds the probability of
missing the sync signal given the PN-sequence was transmitted, while the second condition finds the probability of
falsely detecting a correlation timing event given no PNsequence was transmitted. In the later case, the synchronizer is fed by AWGN only. Another interesting ROC
case occurs when there is an unsynchronized signal present but the correlator finds a correlation timing peak. We
do not provide analysis for this condition, however.

3.1 PREAMBLE SYNCHRONIZER

In an AWGN channel, the base-band received discretetime sampled signal can be written as y[kl = x[kl&kl +
n[k], where ak] is the synchronization offset signal perturbing the transmitted signal x [ k ] . 4k] can be written as
ak]=exp(j(2xaWN+ e)), where e is the carrier phase and E
= AfTs is the frequency offset between the transmit and
received signals, normalized by the suh-camer spacinghub
= l/Ts. We note that for continuous-time, f = kT, and T, =
TN, where T i s the sample period and N is the total number
of sub-camers in the OFDM system. During synchronization the received sampled signal is de-spread by the reference code PN-sequence represented by
)
(1)
r*[k-l]y[k] = 4 r * [ k - l ] ( r [ k ] e x p ( j ( 2 ~ N + e+)n[k]),
where

U:

is the received signal power and n [ k ] is AWGN

with noise power U : .

For this work, we use a single product for the synchronizer signal and a delay of approximately Yz the
OFDM symbol period TN. The synchronizer signal can be
written as Cp[k,l]=xpl.kPz)*
=

where the maximum amplitude and phase of Cp[k,l] are

used for the timing and frequency estimates, respectively.
xpland xpzare the first and second sub-comelator outputs, respectively. Assuming m a x ~ , , ~ ; ~ passes
1
the detection threshold for timing, the frequency estimate (in Hz)
is derived from the sub-comelator outputs according to
L ( ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ) . f ~ / the
( m timing
V , ) a peak,
t
where N, is the
total sync information length in samples, f is the sample
rate in sampleskec, and A(.) is the angle in radians. The
frequency offset is based on a differential phase estimate
so it is independent of carrier phase offset. Once the frequency offset is resolved, the camer phase is calculated
from the phase angle of each sub-comelator peak.

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For reasonably high SNRs, the correlator distribution

for correct timing is found to be a Gaussian random variable [3] with mean and standard deviation, respectively,
,U = sinc2(&KJN),

and

(3)

a={-&

sinc(&KJN).

(4)

Kp is the preamble PN-sequence (sub-correlator) length,

which in our case is approximately half of N, the OFDM
symbol length in samples (or the total number of OFDM
sub-channels including null and data camers). Under correct timing, the probability of missing the sync signal,
given one was sent, can be found by finding the area under
a Gaussian density function with mean and standard deviation as defined in (3) and (4), respectively, with a given
correlation signal output less than the detection threshold.
When no synchronization signal is present, the synchronizer is fed by AWGN only, and the distribution can
be found [3] to be
fwron&)
= ~ (U$
2 )'Ko(2.( U$ )).
(5)
KO(*)is the zeroth order modified Bessel function and

where a: is the transmitted signal power and a.' is the

receiver noise (Gaussian) variance. The cumulative distribution function for incorrect timing is found by integrating
( 5 ) , where the probability of the correlator output being
less than a given threshold, a, is represented by this integration evaluated at threshold a. We denote this probability as P( 5 5 a ) . The probability of false detection is then,
Pf=l-P((<a).

3.2 EMBEDDED
SYNCHRONIZER
The base-band received sampled signal in AWGN can be
written as y [ k ~ = ( J ; ; o , r [ k ~ + ~ a , d [ k ~+) ~n[k],
k~
where 4 k ] is the sync offset signal (see Section 3.1) perturbing the transmitted signal &r[k] + G d [ k ] . During synchronization the received signal is de-spread by the
reference code PN-sequence represented by

separate, thus the total length of the sequence can comprise more time samples if the frequency hop rate is to be
equal for both synchronization schemes. Thus, we may be
able to utilize more sub-correlator products, along with
additional data information samples. For this work, however, T,=TN for both synchronizers. The sub-correlator
output is a result of de-spread signals summed in groups of
K, samples. For a given offset, I , the synchronization signal is found by summing J sub-correlator products, spaced
K, samples apart. The synchronizer signal [4] can be written as

where the maximum amplitude and phase of <,[k,l] are

used for the timing frequency estimates, respectively.
The correlator distribution for correct timing is found
[4] to be a Gaussian random variable with mean and standard deviation, respectively,
,U = sinc*(&KJN,
(9)
and

a = .,@Gjj sinc(&JW.

(10)

For incorrect timing, the distribution is found to be [4]

fwr&)
= .Q ) ' K o ( ~ o 1,
~,
(11)
where
o ; < = K , p o ; / ( ( I - p ) c : +at).
(12)
We set J=1 for the following analysis. We denote a k a n d
oz as the effective SNR at the sub-correlator outputs.

4.

FH-OFDM WAVEFORM I RESULTS

The specifications of the FH-OFDM waveform are shown

in Figure 3. For this analysis, we assume a single OFDM
symbol per hop dwell in each synchronizer scheme. First
we show the maximum achievable bit rate and associated

;[k-lly[kl= &ox r'[k-l]r[k]exp0'(2~/~+8)) +

G o , r'[k-l]d[klexp(j(2m~~+e)) + r'[k-~ln[kl, (7)

where a: is the received signal power and n[k] is AWGN
with noise power 0,'
The embedded scheme also utilizes a single product
for the synchronizer signal and a delay of approximately %
the OFDM symbol period. However, with the embedded
scheme the data and synchronization information are not

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$ 1 1

OFOM Eubraou, sze,U

1.2

i i F car...

~N...*,~=O=~l

YOll I D I L R.(bP".*C,

Figure 4. Bit rate versus OFDM sub-camer size, N.

Figure 5. Spectral efficiency, q,versus hop rate, Rh.

bandwidth efficiency with each scheme using a fixedlength PN-sequence ( K p = 32) for the preamble scheme
and a variable length PN-sequence ( 3 2 I K, 5 512) for the
embedded scheme. The value of p required to meet a desired ROC for the embedded scheme is considered immediately following this development, and leads to a graphical illustration of the probability of miss (P,) and probability of false (Pf) detection ROC performance for frequency hopping using either sync scheme.
The analysis assumes a RF transmission bandwidth of
1 MHz, and a fixed base-band sample rate, = (4/3)x106
sampleskec. FH capability is then analyzed using variable
OFDM channel sizes N = 2q, where q=6, ...,10. Both synchronizers utilized 75% of N for the total number of data
bearing plus pilot sub-camers. The unused sub-camers
were set to null carriers. For the preamble scheme, no pilots were utilized. For the embedded scheme, however,
we assumed 25% pilots* would be required to help remove
any detrimental effects due to the PN-sequence interference on the data demodulation process. For the differential modulation process, one sub-camer is reserved for
encoding initialization. With a constant base-hand sample
rate and RF bandwidth, as N increases, the sub-camer
spacing decreases. The two schemes are compared using
the same number of OFDM sub-camers, and thus equal
sub-camer spacing.
The dwell time, Td, as defined in Figure 3 , is equal to
the total time duration (T, + T,) for the preamble method
and T, for the embedded method. The switch time, TSw,is
set to 15w,and the total hop duration for a single dwell
is, Th = Td + TSw.We assume that the switch time, Tsw,is
sufficient to eliminate any IS1 that might occur from hop
to hop. A guard time of 15 p e c is assumed between the
sync and OFDM payload symbol for the preamble scheme
to eliminate IS1 between the preamble and OFDM symbol.
We also assume that spectral splatter is insignificant and

will not reduce bandwidth efficiency.. The raw bit rate is,
Rb = (NJi"h)*2 bitdsymbol, where Nd is the number of data
sub-camer symbols which are DQPSK modulated.
Bandwidth efficiency is computed as the ratio of Rb
divided by the RF bandwidth or q = ( R b bits/sec) /1 MHz.
The hop rate, Rh, is calculated by taking the reciprocal of
the hop duration, Th. Using Kp = 32 for the preamble
scheme and 32 5 K, 5 512 for the embedded scheme, Figure 4 shows a plot of the bit rate, Rb, as a function of the
number of OFDM sub-camers, N . Note that N = 2K, for
the embedded scheme (ref. Figure 1). Once N Z 2' (256),
the bit rate of the preamble scheme is higher than the embedded method. This is due to the sync overhead in the
preamble scheme being lower than 25%, which is the assumed amount of pilot overhead in the embedded scheme
(to improve the data demodulation performance).
Figure 5 shows the achievable hop rate versus spectral
efficiency utilizing the bit rate information from Figure 4.
Results indicate that the preamble scheme exhibits a much
more dramatic change in spectral efficiency as a function
of hop rate, Rh. At hop rates greater than 3.7 khopdsec,
the embedded method provides better spectral efficiency,
q. The embedded hop rate versus bandwidth efficiency
performance must, however, consider the effect of sync-todata ratio, p, and the associated ROC performance. Next
we consider the effect p has on the achievable hop rate for
the embedded scheme, given a desired ROC.
For the hop rates shown in Figure 5. using a constant
preamble size of 2Kp = 64 samples results in an equal error
rate ROC performance of P, 5 Pf = 10". Using the correct
detection threshold, a, this ROC was confirmed via simulation [SI.The embedded scheme ROC will depend on the
total length of the OFDM symbol and the ratio, p. Equating (6) to (12) sets the ROC performance of the preamble
and embedded schemes to he equal. We are interested in
finding the correlator length, K,,as a function of p a n d Kp.
After some simple mathematical manipulations, we find

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i
1 ob

I
02

I
04

I
P

O6

I
08

Figure 7. ROC performance as function of K, U:/.,

Figure 6. Embedded scheme hop rate and OFDM subcamer size versus sync-to-data ratio, p.

=l.

5. CONCLUSIONS#

where K, and K p are the sub-comelator lengths for the embedded and preamble schemes, respectively.
Figure 6 shows the results of varying p on the embedded synchronizer operating points with respect to the hop
rate and OFDM sub-camer size, N . Figure 6 was generated by setting the timing ROC to P, = Pi= 10. ( K p = 32,
U:/..
=1) and using (13). From Figure 6, we see the inverse relationship between the hop rate and sub-carrier
size as expected, but as a function of the ratio, p. We note
that when p is large (0.999), the hop rate is high (16
khopslsec), and this is the point at which the data SNR is
very poor, and thus K, = Kp. Conversely, when p i s small
(0.01), the hop rate is low (100 hopslsec) requiring a large
sub-camer size N to bring the de-spread sync pulse above
the payload signal energy. If we desire a ROC of P, = P, =
(K,= 32) and if p = 0.1 at U:/.; = 1, then K, = 608
( N = 1216), and Rh = 1.1 khopslsec. F o r p = 0.9 at u:/a.
= I, then K, = 40 ( N = 80). and Rh = 13.3 khopslsec. The
associated bandwidth efficiency as a function of p can be
estimated using the Rh values from Figure 6 and finding
the associated on the vettical axis of Figure 5.
The preamble sync ROC performance depends on K,
and .:/U; , while the embedded performance depends on
Ke, U,:/.: , and p. Using results from 3.1 and varying KO,
we can determine the effect of correlation code length, K,
on the ROC performance for the preamble scheme, and
then use (13) to find K, and p required to achieve equivalent ROC performance for the embedded scheme. Figure
7 shows an example plot using (3) - (6) and Kp=16,32,64.
The embedded scheme has equivalent ROC performance
for K.=lOOO and p = 0.032,0.062,0.12, respectively.

In

There is no specific requirement to set P,,,-Prother than for convenience here.

fact, in many cases it may be valid hom a system operation standpoint lo set
Pr > P, and use a unique word to dnmalically improve rejection of false detection events.

In this paper we have presented an analysis of synchronization timing for frequency-hopped OFDM using preamble and embedded synchronization methods. At a receiver
operating characteristic P, = Pi =
the preamble
scheme provides higher spectral efficiency for hop rates
less than 3.7 khopslsec, while the embedded method provides higher spectral efficiency for hop rates greater than
3.7 khopslsec. For the embedded scheme, however, to
achieve hop rates, Rh > 3.7 khopslsec at the same ROC, p
2 0.3, which imposes a limit on the achievable SNR for
data demodulation of [( l-p)/p]p=~.~
= 7l3. To address conditions where p limits the data demodulation SNR, future
work will study advanced receiver signal processing
methods (interference cancellation) so that the embedded
FH-OFDM receiver provides acceptable BER performance.

6.

REFERENCES

[ I ] S. Ariyavisitakul, D. Falconer, F. Adachi, and H. Sari, Guest editorial - wireless broadband techniques. IEEE JSAC. vol. 17, no.
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121 T.M. Schmidl and D.C. Cox, Robust frequency and timing synchronization for OFDM, IEEE Trans. Commun.. vol. 45, no. 12.
pp. 1613-1621,Dec., 1997.
[3] F. Tufvesson. 0. Edfors, and M. Faulkner, Time and frequency
synchronization for OFDM using PN-sequence preambles, in
Proc. of W C , pp. 2203-2207, 1999.
[41 F. Tufvesson, M. Faulkner, P. Hoeher, and 0. Edfors, OFDM
time and frequency synchronization by spread specuum pilot lechnique, in Proc. of Comm. Thry Mini-conf. pp. 115-1 19, 1999.
[51 J. Kleider and S. Gifford, Synchronization for broadband OFDM
mobile ad hoc networking: simulation and implementalion, in
Proc. of ICASSP, vol. 4, pp. 3756-3759, 2002.
161 H. Ochiai and H. Imai. On the distribution of the peak-lo-average
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The views and conclusions contained in this document are those of the aulhon
and should not be interpreted as representing the official policies. either expressed or implied. of the Army Research Laboratory or the U.S.Government.

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