Blind iterative frequency offset estimator for orthogonal frequency division multiplexing systems

This study presents an iterative carrier frequency offset estimator for orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems. The proposed estimator is based on the efficient Viterbi-and-Viterbi (VAV) algorithm. The proposed estimator is blind and can be used with non-constant modulus subcarrier modulations such as quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM). The performance of the proposed estimator is assessed theoretically and via Monte Carlo simulations over various channel models and compared to the performance of other well established blind techniques in addition to the Cramer-Rao lower bound. The comparison results demonstrate that the proposed estimator outperforms other well-established blind estimators by more than 12 dB at moderate and high signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs).