Title: Low complexity timing synchronisation for high speed wireless local area networks

Authors: Sathish Viswanathan; Srikanth Subramanian; Xavier Fernando

Addresses: AU-KBC Research Centre, MIT Campus, Anna University, Chennai 600044, India. ' AU-KBC Research Centre, MIT Campus, Anna University, Chennai 600044, India. ' Ryerson Communications Lab, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineer, Ryerson University, 350 Victoria Street, M5B 2K3 Toronto, Canada

Abstract: In this paper, we propose a low complexity coarse timing offset (CTO) and fine timing offset (FTO) estimation algorithm for the MIMO-OFDM-based 802.11n wireless local area network (WLAN) systems. For synchronisation purposes, the preamble of the high throughput mixed mode has a short training field (STF) and a long training field (LTF). Using the STF, an efficient coarse and fine timing estimation algorithm has been proposed for the mixed mode. Since the same STF structure is also used for the green field mode, the proposed technique is applicable for both modes. Effectively, a single coarse and fine timing estimation algorithm can be implemented for all the high throughput modes of 802.11n enabled systems. The performance of the proposed CTO estimator is compared with the performance of the conventional autocorrelation-based technique. Extensive simulation results show that the proposed CTO estimator performs better at lower signal-to-noise ratio (SNRs).

Keywords: wireless LANs; local area networks; WLAN; multiple input multiple output; MIMO; orthogonal frequency division multiplexing; MIMO; OFDM; MIMO-OFDM; coarse timing offset; CTO; fine timing offset; FTO; simulation; timing synchronisation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCNDS.2012.048827

International Journal of Communication Networks and Distributed Systems, 2012 Vol.9 No.3/4, pp.328 - 341

Received: 07 May 2010
Accepted: 04 Mar 2011
Published online: 30 Aug 2014 *

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