Preamble-based Joint Frame and Frequency Synchronization for OFDMWMAN Systems

Pushpa Kotipalli
ECE Dept., Shri Vishnu Engg. College for Women Bhimavaram, West Godavari District Andhra Pradesh, India - 534202 e-mail: pushpak@svecw.edu.in

Abstract Orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) is a well known multi-carrier digital modulation scheme in which a transmitted data is split into multiple streams that are modulated at different frequencies. The OFDM system is very sensitive to frame and frequency synchronization errors. In this paper, we propose a preamble for frame and frequency synchronization in OFDM systems. The preamble is generated by loading the BPSK data on alternate subcarriers in a symmetric manner. By using the proposed preamble, a frame synchronization method for OFDM systems is described. And, it is shown that the proposed frame synchronization method yields sharp peak at the frame boundary and is independent of carrier frequency offset. Also, we proposed preamble based fractional as well as integer frequency offset estimation techniques. These techniques do not require the prior knowledge of PN sequence or CP length used at the transmitter. Simulations are conducted for AWGN and frequency selective channels to demonstrate the performance of the proposed methods. Simulations show that the proposed frame and frequency synchroniation techniques yeild good results for SNR > 2dB. Keywords-OFDM; time synchronization; preamble and frame synchronization; Frequency synchronization; FFO; IFO.

by the transmitter dynamically [5]. The Schmidls synchronization method [6] uses a preamble containing the two identical halves. This method gives simple and robust estimates for symbol timing and carrier frequency offset. However, the timing metric of Schmidls method has a plateau, which causes large variance of the timing estimate. To reduce the uncertainty due to the timing metric, Minn proposed a method as modification to Schmidls [7]. The result of Minns preamble gives sharper timing metric and smaller variance than Schmidls. In this paper, we propose a preamble (in section II) which can be used to estimate not only frame boundary and fractional frequency offset (FFO), but also integer frequency offset (IFO). In section III, we propose methods for estimating frame boundary, FFO and IFO. Section IV shows simulation results and conclusions are placed in section V. II. OFDM SYSTEM SIGNAL MODEL AND MOTIVATION

A. OFDM System Signal Model We consider the following signal model for the OFDM system. Let the samples of the base-band equivalent OFDM signal, including cyclic prefix (CP), be expressed as

I.

INTRODUCTION

Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing systems allow a bandwidth-efficient transmission over strongly frequency selective wireless channels at a moderate implementation effort [1]. It is commonly known that OFDM systems are very sensitive to synchronization errors, which cause inter-channel interference (ICI) and inter-symbol interference (ISI) when the fast Fourier transform (FFT) window timing is not provided within the ISI-free part of the guard interval [2]. Also, frequency offset that is caused by Doppler shift or misalignment between frequency oscillators exists causing ICI which leads the system performance deteriorating drastically [3]. The existing frame and frequency synchronization techniques for packet OFDM can be broadly grouped into cyclic prefix (CP) based synchronization techniques and preamble based synchronization techniques. The CP based techniques [4] exploit the cyclic prefix information for the purpose of time and frequency synchronization. The main drawback of the CP based techniques is with respect to the unknown nature of the CP length as it may be determined

x( n) =

where N is the total number of carriers, X(k) is the kth subsymbol, and j = 1 , and L indicates the length of CP. The CP is appended at the beginning of OFDM symbol to eliminate ISI. Let the time domain samples corresponding to the preamble and data symbols be denoted by x p ( n) and xd ( n) , respectively. Then, the transmitted signal x(n) can be written as

1 N

X ( k )e
k =0

N 1

2 k ( n L) N

; n = 0,1,..., N 1 (1)

x(n) = x p (n); = xd (n);

0 n N + L 1 n N +L

(2)

Let the OFDM signal be transmitted over a frequency selective multipath channel with the baseband equivalent discrete-time channel impulse response h(n) of length L1. When the signal x(n) is transmitted through a baseband equivalent channel h(n) with dispersion length L1, the channel output signal is given by

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y ( n ) = h ( m) x ( n m)
m =0

L1 1

(3)

Suppose, there is a frequency offset between the oscillators of the transmitter and receiver. A carrier frequency offset of (normalized with subcarrier spacing) causes a phase rotation of 2n/N. Assuming a perfect sampling clock, the received samples of the OFDM symbol are then given by (4) where 0 is an initial arbitrary carrier phase, and (n) is a zero mean circularly symmetric complex white Gaussian 2 noise with variance . B. Motivation As proposed in OFDM mode of WMAN, by loading pseudonoise (PN) sequence on alternate subcarriers, the preamble gets two identical halves in time domain [6]. But frame boundary estimation using correlation between these two identical parts of preamble results in plateau which causes uncertainty in frame boundary estimation. As shown in Table 1, we propose a preamble in which subcarriers are loaded with BPSK data in a symmetric way on alternate subcarriers.
TABLE I. ILLUSTRATION OF USE OF PN SEQUENCE FOR PREAMBLE Subcarrier index k 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 PN sequence X(k) 1 0 -1 0 1 0 1 0 -1 0 1 0 1 0 -1 0

as preamble is loaded on alternate subcarriers and zeros are loaded on the rest of the carriers. Further, 0 n L 1 (7) (iii) x p (n) = x p ( N + n); which represents the cyclic prefix data, taken from the last L samples of useful part of the preamble. Finally, (iv) As subcarriers are loaded symmetrically, preamble in frequency domain exhibits symmetry property i.e., (8) X p (k ) = X p ( N k ); 1 k N 1 Using these properties we propose frame boundary, FFO and IFO estimation techniques in the next section. III. PROPOSED FRAME AND FREQUENCY SYNCHRONIZATION TECHNIQUES

r ( n) = e

2 j n + 0 N

y ( n ) + ( n)

Without loss of generality, let d denotes the sample index measured with respect to left boundary of the CP. That is, d = 0 implies that the window of N samples begins at the left boundary of the CP. A. Frame Boundary Estimator We propose the following timing metric [8] to estimate the frame boundary of OFDM system: | P( d ) | (9) M (d ) = R( d ) where P(d) represents the timing metric without normalization, given by

P ( d ) = r ( n + d )r ( N n + d )
n =0

N 1

(10)

and R(d) gives an estimate of the energy in N samples of the received signal, that is

R ( d ) = r (n + d ) .
n =0

N 1

(11)

We compute this for all values of d. To keep the exposition simple, assume an ideal channel with no noise. Then, samples of the received signal are (12) where x(n) is given by (2). Using (9)-(12), we get the timing metric as

r (n) = e

2 j n + 0 N

x(n)

With the proposed way of subcarrier loading, the preamble exhibits the following properties: (i) Since we considered BPSK data i.e., real data to be loaded on to the subcarriers of the preamble, the corresponding time domain samples of the modulator output (IFFT output) satisfies the conjugate symmetry property i.e., (5) x p ( n + L ) = x* 1 n N 1 p ( N n + L); where superscript '*' denotes complex conjugation. (ii) x p ( n + L ) = x p ( n + L + N / 2); 0 n N / 2 1 (6)

M (d ) =

x(n + d ) x( N n + d )
n=0

N 1

x(n + d )
n=0

N 1

(13)

We evaluate the timing metric M(d) at the frame boundary d = L and in the neighborhood of the frame boundary d L. At the frame boundary i.e., at d = L, the timing metric window consists of samples of preamble and obey the property given in (5) i.e.,

P( L) = x p (n + L) = p
n =0

N 1

(14)

and

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R ( L) = x p (n + L) = p
n=0

N 1

(15)

where p is the energy of the preamble. Therefore, the timing metric at the frame boundary is P( L) (16) M ( L) = =1
R( L)

0.2 i.e., smaller than the amplitude 1of the first significant peak at the frame boundary. After the symbol boundary estimate is found, we perform frequency offset estimation. For frequency offset estimation, N samples starting from the estimated frame boundary d opt are considered. B. FFO Estimator FFO can be estimated using the second property given in (6). Let = + represents carrier frequency offset with representing IFO and ||<1 representing FFO. Let r ( n + d opt ); n = 0,1,..., N 1 be the received preamble symbol. Then, the estimate of FFO is given by [6] 1 = P(dopt )
(17)

and it is easy to see that M(d) is very small for other values of d as it results in sum of uncorrelated terms. This shows that one can use the proposed timing metric M(d) as a measure to detect the frame boundary and it equals the unity when d = L, i.e., at the frame boundary and is very small for d L. Since M(d) is independent of (2n/N), the proposed timing metric is independent of the carrier frequency offset. To illustrate the timing metric in an ideal channel with no noise, we performed simulations. In the simulations, we used a CP of length 32 samples. The preamble is generated with 256 subcarriers which are loaded with BPSK data in the proposed manner. One frame is generated with a preamble and two data symbols. Data symbols are loaded with randomly generated 16 QAM data. A normalized frequency offset = 10.7 is applied. From the received signal samples, M(d) is determined, where d = 0 corresponds to the left boundary of the preamble.
Proposed timing metric in ideal channel 1 0.9 0.8 0.7 0.6 M(d) 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1 0

where

P (d opt ) = r * ( m + d opt )r (m +
m=0

N 1 2

N + d opt ) 2

(18)

C. IFO Estimator After FFO estimation is over, the received preamble symbol r (n + d opt ); n = 0,1,..., N 1 is first compensated with the FFO estimate
2 j n N

giving
(19)

a ( n) = e
Then,

r (n + d opt ); n = 0,1,..., N 1
N 1 n =0 j 2 )n ( k + N

DFTN [ a(n) ] = A(k ) = r (n + dopt )e A(k ) = x(n + d opt )e

n=0
0 50 100 150 200 Sampling index, d 250 300

(20)

Considering ideal channel with no noise, (20) reduces to

N 1 j 2 kn N

2 )n ( N

(21)

If d opt = L , (21) simplifies to

Figure 1. Timing metric as a function of d (ideal channel with no noise, = 10.7, FFT length, N = 256, BPSK data are loaded on Preamble and 16 QAM data on data symbols, and CP = 32)

A(k ) = X p (k + ) = X p (k )
N 1 n =1

(22)

Now, we propose the following metric to estimate the IFO.

B(l ) = A(k + l ) A ( ( N k + l ) mod N ) ; l = 0,1,..., N / 2 1

Fig. 1 shows the plot of M(d) for d = 0 to 300. As predicted by earlier analysis, the frame boundary is located at d = L, and its amplitude is equal to Unity. The frame boundary is at d = 32 with an amplitude of 1, which is consistent with the theory. The second significant peak is resulted due to the periodic nature of the metric. As alternate subcarriers are loaded with data while loading remaining subcarriers with zeros, the proposed metric gets the periodic nature with N / 4 periodicity. The second significant peak at 96 is consistent with the theory and its amplitude is less than

Substituting (22) in B (l ) results in

B(l ) = X p (k + l ) X p ( ( N k + l ) mod N ) ; l = 0,1,..., N / 2 1
N 1 n =1

At l = , the amplitude of B (l ) becomes

| B( ) |=

X
n =1

N 1

(k ) X p ( N k )

(23)

Using the symmetry property (8) in (23), we get

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| B( ) |=

X
n =1

N 1

2 p

(k ) p

(24)

according to the SNR = 10dB, is added to the received signal component. CP length L = 32 is selected.
AWGN Channel Mean of Timing Metric Mean of Timing Metric 1 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 0 SUI-3 Channel

where p is the energy of the preamble. | B(l ) | is very small for l . Therefore, the proposed metric can be used to estimate IFO and is given by = arg max {| B (l ) |} (25)
l

0.5

Also, the proposed IFO estimator does not require the knowledge of PN sequence transmitted. To illustrate the proposed IFO estimator in an ideal channel with no noise, we performed simulations. Preamble and data symbols are generated as discussed in timing metric illustration. A normalized frequency offset = 10.7 is applied. From the estimated frame boundary, N samples are taken and IFO estimator technique is applied. Fig. 2 shows the plot of | B(l ) | for l = 0,1,...,127 . As predicted by

100 200 (a) Sample index, d

300

100 200 (c) Sample index, d

300

Variance of Timing Metric

0.008 0.006 0.004 0.002 0 50 100 150 200 250 300 (b) Sample index, d

Variance of Timing Metric

0.01

0.05 0.04 0.03 0.02 0.01 0 0 100 200 (d) Sample index, d 300

earlier analysis, the peak is located at l = , and its amplitude is equal to the energy of the preamble. The largest peak is at l = 10 with amplitude of 128, which is consistent with the theory.
Proposed IFO Estimator in ideal channel 140

Figure 3. Mean and variance of proposed timing metric as a function of d in AWGN and SUI-3 channels ( = 10.7, FFT length, N = 256 and CP = 32)

120

100

80 |B(l)|

60

40

20

20

40

60 80 Sucarrier index, k

100

120

140

Figure 2. IFO metric as a function of subcarrier index, k (ideal channel with no noise, = 10.7, FFT length, N = 256, BPSK data are loaded on Preamble and 16 QAM data on data symbols, and CP = 32)

IV. BEHAVIOUR OF PROPOSED TIME AND FREQUENCY METRICS IN AWGN AND FADING CHANNELS A. Performance of Frame Boundary Estimator To observe the behavior of the timing metric in the presence of AWGN and fading channels, simulations were conducted. A frame consisting of the preamble and four data symbols is generated. OFDM symbols with useful part of 256 samples are generated. The preamble is generated with BPSK data on alternate subcarriers in symmetric way. Subcarriers of data symbols are fully loaded with 16 QAM symbols. A frequency offset of 10.7 times the subcarrier spacing is assumed in the simulations. A complex Gaussian noise sequence with zero mean, and variance chosen

The simulations consisted of 1000 trials, using a different realization of the noise sequence each time. In each trial, we evaluate M(d) for d = 0, 1, ..., 300. Due to the noise effects, values of M(d) will vary from trail to trial. Hence, from the 1000 values of M(d), we evaluated the sample mean and the sample variance of M(d), for d =0, 1, , 300. The sample mean of the proposed timing metric in AWGN channel at SNR = 10 dB is shown in Fig. 3(a). It shows two significant peaks at d = L, and d = L + 64. Out of the two significant peaks, first one is with the maximum amplitude and falls along perfect frame boundary. The sample variance of the metric, as shown in Fig.3(b) increases in the observation interval. It was observed that the sample variance of M(d) was only as high as 3 10-3 for any value of d. Thus, the detection of frame boundary, in the presence of AWGN does not pose any problem. We considered Stanford university interim (SUI) channel models [9] to simulate the frequency selective channels. In our simulations, we used SUI -1 to SUI-3 channels since their impulse response is less than N/4=64. The impulse response of the channel has been normalized to unit norm. An SNR of 10 dB is used in the simulations. The sample mean plot of SUI-3 channel in Fig. 3( c) shows the spread of peak at d = L. It is also observed in the simulation results that the sample variance plot in Fig. 3(d) shows a similar tendency. In multipath channels, the above observations indicate that the peak of the timing metric shifts to the right of the frame boundary due to channel dispersion. That is, due to channel affects, the amplitude of peak around d = L is likely to become less than peak along the strongest path of the channel. We consider the frame boundary along the strongest path of the channel i.e., the peak detection along the strongest path is considered as the correct detection of the frame boundary.

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2011 11th International Conference on Hybrid Intelligent Systems (HIS)

Variance of FFO estimator

The simulation experiment is conducted 2000 times using a different realization of noise and channel each time. The procedure is repeated for SNR values in the range 0 dB to 20 dB in steps of 2 dB. In Fig. 4, we observed that the variation of the probability of false detection of frame boundary with respect to SNR is small. In the case of, probability of false detection of frame boundary is zero for AWGN channel, around 0.04 for low fading channel SUI-2 and is 0.1 for high fading channel SUI-3 for SNR>4dB.
0.2 Probability of Flase Frame Boundary detections AWGN SUI-2 SUI-3

10

-2

AWGN SUI-2 SUI-3

10

-3

10

-4

0.15

10
0.1

-5

10 12 SNR in dB

14

16

18

20

0.05

Figure 6. Variance of FFO estimate (normalized CFO, = 10.7, frame boundary is considered along strongest path of the channel)

-0.05

-0.1

10 12 SNR in dB

14

16

18

20

Figure 4. Probability of false detections of proposed timing metric as a function of SNR

From the estimated frame boundary, N samples are collected and proposed FFO estimator is implemented. B. Performance of FFO Estimator To illustrate how FFO estimator performs in both AWGN and frequency selective channels, we have performed simulations with 1000 different realizations of channel and noise. We repeated the experiment for SNR ranging from 0 dB to 20 dB in steps of 2 dB.
AWGN SUI-2 SUI-3

A frequency offset of 10.7 times the subcarrier spacing is assumed in the simulations. Fig. 5 and Fig. 6 show the mean and variance of FFO estimator over different SNR values when frame boundary is considered along the strongest path of the channel. These plots show that the FFO estimator shows less deviation of mean from the true value, even in the presence of high tree density channel (SUI-3). And also, the proposed FFO estimator exhibits more or less similar performance in all channels and yields good results even at SNR = 0 dB. C. Performance of IFO Estimator When the IFO estimate is different from the true value, we count IFO error by one, and compute the error probability as the ratio of the errors to the total number of tests. Fig. 7 plots the integer frequency offset (IFO) error probability of the suggested IFO estimation method. As shown in Fig. 7, the probability of error of the proposed IFO estimator is 0.1 for high tree density channel SUI-3 and is nearer to zero for SUI-2 and AWGN channels for SNR>2dB.
0.3 0.25 Probability of Error in IFO estimation 0.2 0.15 0.1 0.05 0 -0.05 AWGN SUI-2 SUI-3

0.708 0.706 0.704 Mean of FFO 0.702 0.7 0.698 0.696 0.694 0.692 0.69

10 12 SNR in dB

14

16

18

20

-0.1

Figure 5. Mean of FFO estimate (normalized CFO, = 10.7, frame boundary is considered along strongest path of the channel)

10 12 SNR in dB

14

16

18

20

Figure 7. Probability of errors of proposed IFO estimator as a function of SNR

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V. CONCLUSIONS In this paper, we proposed a preamble loaded with BPSK data in a symmetric manner on alternate subcarriers. Based on this preamble, we proposed timing and frequency synchronization techniques. The proposed timing metric is independent of frequency offset. It has been shown that the timing metric results a sharp peak at the frame boundary. Simulations have been done to study the performance of the proposed method in identifying the frame boundary. FFO estimator follows Coxs principle. It exhibits variance less than 2x10-3 for SNR>2dB. Combining the results of low error variance of frequency selective channels with the results of mean, we observe that the FFO estimate is very close to the true value.The proposed preamble-based IFO estimator exhibits maximum of 0.1 probability of error in the channels used in simulations. The proposed time and frequency estimators do not require prior knowledge of cyclic prefix (CP) length or PN sequence chosen by the transmitter. Also, proposed IFO estimator avoids the overhead of additional OFDM symbol in IFO estimation. Hence, frame boundary, FFO and IFO can be estimated using single preamble by loading data in a proposed manner.

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