A new preamble-based cell search algorithm for asynchronous MC-CDMA systems

In this paper, we propose a new cell search scheme for asynchronous multi-carrier (MC) CDMA systems. For initial cell search, the proposed scheme contains detection processes for symbol timing, fractional frequency offset, frame timing, cell-specific code group, integer frequency offset, and cell-specific code. In order to accomplish faster cell search by diminishing the effects of noise and interference, a new preamble structure with power-concentrated repeated symbols is proposed and efficient detection algorithms for the above parameters are also proposed. Then, the performances of the proposed cell search algorithms are evaluated in a multi-cell environment with 19-hexagonal cell layout. The proposed method can search the desired cell site nearly twice as fast as the conventional method when the cumulative cell detection probability is 0.95. (C) 2008 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.