An Efficient Carrier Frequency Offset Tracking for OFDMA Systems Using Normalized Least-Mean-Square Algorithm

In orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA), carrier frequency offset (CFO) destroys the orthogonality between subcarriers due to Doppler effect of the channel and also causes inter-carrier interference (ICI) as well as multiple access interference (MAI). In this paper, CFO tracking algorithm for OFDMA system is presented to overcome the effect of ICI as well as MAI. The proposed algorithm employs normalized least-mean-square (NLMS) algorithm which tracks the residual carrier frequency offset in OFDMA system. The proposed NLMS-based tracking algorithm uses average of all residual carrier frequency offset (RCFO) for improving the mean square error (MSE) performance. The proposed NLMS-based frequency tracking along with frequency offset compensator improves the error performance by reducing the effect of ICI and MAI. Simulation results indicate that the proposed algorithm achieves better tracking performance in the presence of frequency offset. From the results, it is observed that the MSE of the proposed estimator is improved about 3.8 dB at SNR = 20 dB with the frequency offset.