Optimum Symbol Timing Estimation with Various Performance Measures for OFDM systems

Jungwon Lee, Dimitris Toumpakaris, and Hui-Ling Lou

May 18, 2005

Outline
I. II. Introduction System Model

III. Symbol Timing Synchronization IV. Various Symbol Timing Estimators V. Simulation Results

VI. Conclusion

Introduction OFDM
Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM)
Widely used in many wireless systems such as WLAN, DAB, DVB, etc. Combats inter-symbol interference using computationally efficient fast Fourier transform (FFT) and cyclic prefix. Symbol timing synchronization is necessary.

Introduction Symbol Timing Synchronization

Symbol timing offset
Difference between the current FFT window position and the correct position. Introduces phase change, inter-carrier interference (ICI), and/or intersymbol interference (ISI).

Maximum likelihood (ML) estimator of symbol timing offset

Maximizes the probability that the estimate is correct. Does not care about the error magnitude. Weighs all non-zero timing errors equally. Well-known but may not be the best choice.

This paper derives the optimal symbol timing estimators with various performance measures.

Outline
I. II. Introduction System Model

III. Symbol Timing Synchronization IV. Various Symbol Timing Estimators V. Simulation Results

VI. Conclusion

System Model (1)

System Model (2)

Received signal with unknown delay

y[n] = x[n ] + z[n]

y[n] : received signal x[n] : transmit signal z[n] : noise : uniformly distributed in [0, N + N g 1] .

Objective
Estimation of with the observation of M received samples y[n] .

Outline
I. II. Introduction System Model

III. Symbol Timing Synchronization IV. Various Symbol Timing Estimators V. Simulation Results

VI. Conclusion

Effects of Symbol Timing Offset (1)

Three cases
0 N g
OFDM Symbol 0

FFT window
OFDM Symbol 1 OFDM Symbol 2

cyclic prefix

N g + 1 N g + N / 2 1 FFT window
OFDM Symbol 0 OFDM Symbol 1 OFDM Symbol 2

1 N / 2
OFDM Symbol 0

FFT window
OFDM Symbol 1 OFDM Symbol 2

Effects of Symbol Timing Offset (2)

Case 1 Inside the region of the cyclic prefix samples and the first useful sample
Linear phase change in the frequency domain

0 N g
OFDM Symbol 0

FFT window
OFDM Symbol 1 OFDM Symbol 2

cyclic prefix

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Effects of Symbol Timing Offset (3)

Case 2 & 3 Outside of the region consisting of the cyclic prefix samples and the first useful sample
Linear phase change in the frequency domain Inter-symbol interference (ISI) and inter-carrier interference (ICI)
ISI and ICI increase as the error magnitude increases.

N g + 1 N g + N / 2 1 FFT window
OFDM Symbol 0 OFDM Symbol 1 OFDM Symbol 2

1 N / 2
OFDM Symbol 0

FFT window
OFDM Symbol 1 OFDM Symbol 2

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Goals of Symbol Timing Synchronization

A linear phase may not be a problem in some cases.
The FFT window beginning can be placed anywhere in the region consisting of cyclic prefix samples and the first useful sample.

ICI and ISI gradually increases as the symbol timing error increases.
It may not be a good idea to treat all the symbol timing errors equally regardless of their magnitudes. In some cases, it may be preferable to have frequent small errors rather than infrequent large errors.

The goal of symbol timing synchronization can be different depending on OFDM systems considered.

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Outline
I. II. Introduction System Model

III. Symbol Timing Synchronization IV. Various Symbol Timing Estimators V. Simulation Results

VI. Conclusion

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Maximum A Posteriori (MAP) Estimator

MAP estimator maximizes P ( = ) , the probability that the estimate is correct.
MAP estimator

= arg max{p( | y )}

y : observation vector of M samples p ( | y ) : conditional probability mass function of given y

MAP estimator becomes the maximum likelihood (ML) estimator for uniformly distributed . ML estimator was derived by Van de Beek et al.

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Minimum Failure Probability (MFP) Estimator

MFP estimator maximizes P[(( )) N t N g ] , the probability that the FFT window beginning lies in the region of cyclic prefix samples and the first useful sample. MFP estimator

+ N g = arg max p|Y (((k )) Nt | y) k =

MFP estimator can be derived using the expression for f (y | ), which is available in the literature for AWGN and fast fading Rayleigh channel.

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Minimum Mean Square Error (MMSE) Estimator

MMSE estimator minimizes

E[c( )]
c ( ) = [min{(( )) N , N t (( )) N }]2 t t

MMSE estimator can be easily derived using f (y | ) .

FFT window

cyclic prefix

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Minimum Modified Mean Square Error (MMMSE) Estimator

MMMSE estimator minimizes

E[c( )]
( c( ) = [max{min{( ))N , Nt (( ))N },0}]
t t

MMSE estimator can also be easily derived using f (y | ) .

FFT window

cyclic prefix

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General Bayesian Estimator (1)

General Bayesian estimator minimizes E[c ( )] .
For any cost function, a Bayesian estimator can be found for timing synchronization. All the previous estimators can be explained in the context of a general Bayesian estimator.

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General Bayesian Estimator (2)

Cost function for ML estimator Cost function for MFP Estimator

0, (( )) N t = 0 c( ) = 1, otherwise

0, (( )) N t N g c( ) = otherwise 1,

FFT window

FFT window

cyclic prefix
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cyclic prefix

General Bayesian Estimator (3)

Other goals of synchronization of interest
Maximizing signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) Minimizing average bit error rate (BER)

The estimators for maximum SNR and minimum average BER can be found as a special case of a general Bayesian estimator. No analytic expressions for the cost functions are available. The cost functions can be found by simulation.

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Outline
I. II. Introduction System Model

III. Symbol Timing Synchronization IV. Various Symbol Timing Estimators V. Simulation Results

VI. Conclusion

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Simulation Results Failure Probability

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Simulation Results Mean Square Error

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Simulation Results Modified Mean Square Error

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Outline
I. II. Introduction System Model

III. Symbol Timing Synchronization IV. Various Symbol Timing Estimators V. Simulation Results

VI. Conclusion

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Conclusion
Developed optimum symbol timing estimators for various performance measures.
Minimum failure probability estimator Minimum mean square error estimator Modified minimum mean square error estimator

Derived a general Bayesian estimator and described all the above estimators and ML estimator in the general context of Bayesian estimation theory. Showed that different estimators should be chosen depending on the goal of the symbol timing synchronization.

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