Joint STO and DFO Estimation for SEFDM in Low-Earth-Orbit Satellite Communications

In this article, a joint symbol timing offset (STO) and Doppler frequency offset (DFO) estimation algorithm is proposed for spectrally efficient frequency division multiplexing (SEFDM) system in the downlink of low-earth-orbit (LEO) satellite communications. Considering the nonorthogonality of SEFDM, the proposed algorithm is derived by maximizing likelihood function. To reduce computation complexity of STO estimator, all unnecessary terms in likelihood function are ignored. Further, the proposed CFO estimator is simplified by replacing the inverse trigonometric function with polynomial approximation. According to relevant standards issued by the International Telecommunications Union and the 3rd Generation Partnership Project, simulation parameters are set to evaluate the estimation performance. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm is robust to different packing factors of SEFDM, and outperforms traditional estimation methods.