A new symbol timing synchronization for OFDM based WLANs

Abstract

A new symbol timing synchronization method for OFDM based WLANs is proposed. The proposed method, which is based on the preamble structure of the IEEE 802.11a combines auto-correlation and cross-correlation algorithms where the thresholds are adaptively adjusted according to the received signal power. The proposed method with low implementation complexity enables a rapid and accurate synchronization even under very low SNR, large carrier frequency offset and multipath fading channels. The simulation results based on the IEEE 802.11a standard are presented to show the effectiveness of the proposed method.