A Reduced Complexity Joint Cell Index and Carrier Frequency Offset Detection for OFDM-based LTE Systems

In cellular systems, user equipment must perform the cell search procedure in order to acquire symbol timing, frame timing, carrier frequency offset (CFO), sector cell index (CID) and group CID. This paper proposes a low-complexity sector CID and CFO detection scheme in a long term evolution downlink system. To achieve low complexity, a primary synchronization signal used for parameter estimation is grouped into a number of subsets so that the phase of pilots in each subset is unique. The performance and complexity of the proposed joint detection scheme are compared with those of the conventional joint detection schemes. We show via simulations that such a design achieves exactly the same detection accuracy as that of the conventional joint detection schemes with one half of complexity being saved.