Non-Pilot-Aided Timing Offset Estimation for OFDM Systems with Frequency Diversity

This letter deals with non-pilot-aided symbol timing estimation methods in an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) system. To do this, OFDM system uses a frequency diversity scheme over two consecutive data symbols. Our approach can be viewed as an expansion of Schmidl's and Minn's correlation methods. Using the OFDM signal equipped with frequency diversity, however, symbol timing is accurately estimated without additional training symbol and a second-order diversity gain is achieved.