A robust timing and frequency synchronization algorithm for DVB-H receiver

A robust symbol timing and carrier frequency synchronization scheme applicable to orthogonal frequency division multiplexing system is presented. The proposed method is based on correlation and energy detection in time domain. The estimator has a steep timing metric and can provide delay-spread information about the channel. It means that the proposed method can distinguish ISI (Inter-symbol interference) free region from ISI region with optimum timing position acquired. The computer simulation results show that the proposed algorithm can track time varying channel condition and has much smaller MSE (Mean Squares Error) than that of ML estimation algorithms (1). Index Terms--carrier frequency synchronization, DVB-H, ML estimation, OFDM, symbol timing synchronization