A time and frequency synchronization scheme for multiuser OFDM

We present a multiuser synchronization scheme for tracking the mobile’s uplink time and frequency offsets. It uses the redundancy introduced by the cyclic prefix and does not need additional pilots. We show performance results of an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM)-based radio interface based on universal mobile telecommunication system (UMTS) parameters. For a UMTS-typical mobile channel environment, the performance of a coherent system employing the scheme is virtually indistinguishable from the performance of a perfectly synchronized system. In a differentially modulated system, synchronization errors decrease the system performance by about 0.7 dB compared to a perfectly synchronized system.