JOURNAL OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS, VOLUME 28, ISSUE 1, NOVEMBER 2014

Wide range CFO estimation for TDS-OFDM

Hamada Esmaiel and Danchi Jiang
Abstract An improved carrier frequency offset (CFO) estimation scheme is proposed in this short paper, for time domain
synchronization orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (TDS-OFDM) system over multi-path fading channel with significant
tap delay. Equalized processing method is proposed based on the frequency-domain pseudorandom noise (FDPN) of TDSOFDM to estimate the carrier frequency offset. Time reversal is proposed to improve the estimation accuracy.
Index TermsCFO, OFDM, underwater acoustic communication, time reversal.

1 INTRODUCTION

DS-OFDM is the based technique for digital television terrestrial broadcasting (DTMB), proposed for
spectral and energy efficiency improvement, where
no pilots signal is used as in others OFDM scheme such as
cyclic prefix OFDM (CP-OFDM) and zero padding OFDM
(ZP-OFDM) [1]. TDS-OFDM as any other OFDM scheme
is very sensitive to carrier frequency offset (CFO). CFO
severity is destroyed orthogonally among OFDM subcarrier, bringing on inter-carrier interference (ICI). Accurate estimation of CFO is one of the most important technical challenges for OFDM transmission [2, 3].
Frequency-domain pseudorandom noise (FDPN) sequence is adapted to TDS-OFDM system as a training
sequence for channel estimation as well as frame synchronization. Many literatures have focused on the CFO
estimation TDS-OFDM system [3]. CFO normally estimated based on the received PN sequence and local PN
sequence cross-correlation. CFO based on the cross correlation only works well under a small CFO range [3].
Time reversal (TR) technique is a promising technique
for signal and multicarrier modulation. Thanks to its capability for multi-path fading channel focussing. In the same
line, TR service on equalizer simplification and multiuser
interference reduction [4].
In this short paper, the equalized processing method [5]
is proposed based on the TDS-OFDM training sequence for
wide range CFO estimation over multipath channel. The
time reversal is suggested to reduce the multi-path channel
effect and improve the CFO estimation accuracy.

where, N is inverse fast Fourier transform (IFFT) size,

X k is the modulated data block in the TDS-OFDM k-th
sub-carrier and c (n ) is the PN sequence with M length.
The received OFDM frame over multi-path channel given
by:
(2)
r(n) = y(n)e j 2n N + v(n) + w(n),
where, the v (n ) is interlock interference (IBI) between
the TDS-OFDM data blocks and w(n ) is the additive
white Gaussian noise. is the normalized carrier frequency offset (CFO). y (n ) the signal component in (2) is
given by:

2 SIGNAL MODEL

d (n ) = r (n ) f (n )

The TDS-OFDM signal frame can be expressed as:

a (n ) =

s (n ) =
b(n ) =

1
N

N 1

1
M

M 1

X k e j 2kn N ,
c(n )e

j 2kn M

(3)

k =0

hk is the k-th channel impulse response.

3 ESTIMATION METHOD
The envelop equalized processing (EEP) factor method is
proposed for wide range of CFO estimation for OFDM
system using a training sequence [5]. In this paper, the
FDPN sequence of the TDS-OFDM is used as a training
sequence for CFO estimation. The EEP factor f n defined
as [5]:
*

f (n ) =

b(n )
b(n )

(4)

where * denote the complex conjugate and . is the

Euclidean norm. At the receiver side, the received FDPN
TDS-OFDM after equalized by the EEP factor over
n = N ,, N + M 1 is represented as:
= h0b(n )e j 2n
= h0b(n )e j 2n

n = 0,1,, N 1

k =0

L 1

y (n ) = hk s (n k ),

L 1
f (n ) + hk b(n k )e j 2n
k =1
N
f (n ) + w(n ),
N

(5)
+ v (n ) + w(n ) f (n ),

where,

(1)

, n = N , , N + M 1

k =0

Hamada Esmaiel and Danchi Jiang are with School of Engineering and
ICT, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Australia.

w(n ) = h0b(n )e j 2n

L 1
f (n ) + hk b(n k )e j 2n
k =1

+ v (n ) + w(n ) f (n ).

The normalized CFO to the sub-carrier spacing is

given by:
(6)
= I + F ,
Based on the EEP estimation algorithm [5] the CFO estimation is based on a three steps. First, based on a periodogram of the received TDS-OFDM FDPN sequence

symbol the integer frequency offset (IFO) can be estimated.

(7)
I = arg max{I ( f k ) + I ( f k + 1)},
fk

M
M M

where f k
, + 1,......... ., 1 and I ( f k ) is the
2
2
2

d (n ) periodogram:

I ( fk ) =

M 1

nel with maximum channel tap delay L= 32. A measured

UWA is the other channel. The UWA channel is adopted
from an experimental data collection in the ASCOT01 [1,
11].

d (i )e j 2fk i M .

(8)

i =0

Secondly, the fractional frequency offset (FFO) based

on I value is computed.
I (I + 1)
(9)
F =
.
I (I ) + I (I + 1)
In the third step, the residual frequency error estimation between the true CFO and the sum of I and F is
estimated for more accuracy by:
1 I (I + F + 0.5) I (I + F 0.5)
(10)
R =
.
2 I (I + F + 0.5) + I (I + F 0.5)

(a)

Then, the estimated CFO is obtained by

= I + F + R .

(11)

This algorithm is working perfect in case of not significant multipath channels.

4 MULTIPATH FADING CHANNELS WITH

SIGNIFICANT TAP DELAYS
Algorithm is used eq. (5) for CFO estimation; the algorithm can use and estimate CFO correctly in additive
white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channels and multipath
fading channels when the multipath fading is insignificant. But in significant multipath channel the algorithm
cant estimate the CFO perfectly where eq. (5) cant consider multipath signal as noise.
Time reversal is a feedback wave focusing technique
that can be used to transparently compensate for multipath dispersion in digital communications over several
types of physical propagation media, such as radio or
acoustic channels [6]. In TR process, a known probe signal
transmitted to receiver used in channel estimation, and
retransmitted at receiver. This technique is used in channel focussing where a matched filter based on estimated
channel impulse response is used. Thus, signal focusing
can be achieved at the transmitter if the channel does not
change significantly [7]. Here we consider a passive time
reversal system in the long multipath fading channels
such as underwater channels, which consists of a single
input single output system. Time reversal technique is
used to convert the UWA channel to be an impulse response channel [8-10].

(b)
Fig. 1. Average CFO estimate versus normalized CFO. (a) Simulated
Channel; (b) UWA channel.

Experiment is conducted off the coast of New England

in June 2001. UWA channel is reported and truncated to
have a channel order L=128. TDS-OFDM subcarrier number N = 512 is used with FDPN sequence length M = 32
and M = 128 in the simulated and UWA channels respectively as reported in [1, 12].
As shown in Fig. 1, the CFO estimation based on the
proposed method estimate the CFO with wide range over
the differential correlation method [13]. Time reversal
technique with multi-path channel focusing improves the
CFO estimation accuracy in the equalized processing
method as well as CFO estimation based on the differential correlation method.

5 SIMULATION RESULTS
The proposed method performance was evaluated and
tested by simulations based on two different types of
channels. One is the simulated channel where one channel taps are generated based on a multipath fading chan-

6 CONCLUSION
In this paper, a new frequency offset estimation method for TDS-OFDM system is proposed. The FDPN sequence of the TDS-OFDM is used based on an enve-

lope equalized processing method. The proposed

method improves the CFO of the TDS-OFDM estimation range. Time reversal technique is proposed to reduce the multipath delay spread effect on the accuracy
of CFO estimation. Time reversal provides significant
improvement in the CFO estimated accuracy in the
proposed and differential correlation method. Proposed method is carefully tested using simulated
channels as well as real channels measured from one
sea-going experiment.

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Hamada Esmaiel received the B.S. degree, and
the M.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from
South Valley University, Aswan, Egypt, in
2005, 2010 respectively, where he is currently
working towards the Ph.D. degree, School of
Engineering, University of Tasmania, Hobart,
Australia. During 2007-2010 he was a Demonstrator with South
Valley University. In 2011 he was a Research Engineer in Wireless Communication Lab. Wonkwang University, Iksan, South
Korea. In 2011, he was Assistant Research & Lecturer with Aswan University, Aswan, Egypt. His current research focusses
on communications theory and signal processing, with an emphasis on multi-carrier for underwater communication systems,
channel estimation, and iterative processing.

Dr. Danchi Jiang is a senior lecturer in telecommunication engineering and chair of computer
systems engineering stream at the School of Engineering, University of Tasmania. He has obtained
his PhD in Systems Engineering from Australian
National University and conducted research in the
area of intelligent system and telecommunication at
Chinese University and Hong Kong and National ICT Australia (NICTA). His main research interests are advanced multidimensional
signal processing, intelligent system learning and control with applications in telecommunication, biomedical engineering and micro-grid
power systems, and dynamical systems on manifold and recurrent
neural networks for intelligent optimization.