Performance Evaluation of Timing Estimation Technique Using Extended Cyclic Prefix for Correlation Sequence for OFDM Systems

This paper presents an analysis of symbol timing offset (STO) estimation method for orthogonal frequency division multiplexing systems. The proposed method does not require any preamble and with the use of available cyclic prefix (CP) samples we have proposed an extended CP. The extended CP is used to exploit more number of correlation products in correlation sequence so that a more accurate starting point of any symbol can be estimated. A simplified maximum likelihood estimation process for proposed timing estimation technique is given which enables us much more accurate timing estimate due to decreased error variance. The performance of the proposed method is evaluated in terms of mean square error of timing estimator against different signal to noise ratio values and in terms of error distribution of the estimators with and without the effect of carrier frequency offset in various channel scenarios such as AWGN, HIPERLAN/2A and HIPERLAN/2E. Simulation results shows that proposed method has significantly better performance compared to the CP based method for STO estimation.