Timing and carrier synchronization is a fundamental requirement for any wireless communication system to work properly. Timing synchronization is the process by which a receiver node determines the correct instants of time at which to sample the incoming signal. Carrier synchronization is the process by which a receiver adapts the frequency and phase of its local carrier oscillator with those of the received signal. In this paper, we survey the literature over the last 5 years (2010–2014) and present a comprehensive literature review and classification of the recent research progress in achieving timing and carrier synchronization in single-input single-output (SISO), multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO), cooperative relaying, and multiuser/multicell interference networks. Considering both single-carrier and multi-carrier communication systems, we survey and categorize the timing and carrier synchronization techniques proposed for the different communication systems focusing on the system model assumptions for synchronization, the synchronization challenges, and the state-of-the-art synchronization solutions and their limitations. Finally, we envision some future research directions.

/pdf/timing-and-carrier-synchronization-in-wireless-communication-2w8qk84idd.pdf

Timing and carrier synchronization in wireless communication systems: a survey and classification of research in the last 5 years

Satellite communication systems are able to provide diverse services for ground terminals in ubiquitous global coverage, which play a vital role in high-mobility communication environments Existing technologies developed primarily for satellite communications cannot be readily applied to satellite high-mobility communication scenarios, since high Doppler frequency offset caused by the fast movement of wireless terminals, and low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) circumstances caused by limited link budgets in satellites incur more difficulty of the synchronization, especially for short burst transmission To solve such a problem in satellite high-mobility communications, we propose a novel method named GP-MASO-MLE, which consists of a coarse estimation algorithm based on the Gaussian process (GP) model and Newton-Raphson method, and a fine correction algorithm based on the improved maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) jointly with turbo decoding iterations Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm can approach to the bit error rate (BER) performance bound of ideal Doppler frequency offset correction within 01 dB, which can be well applied in code-aided (CA) satellite high-mobility communication systems for its good performance In addition, the computational complexity of the proposed algorithm is lower than other traditional turbo synchronization algorithms

Iterative Doppler Frequency Offset Estimation in Satellite High-Mobility Communications

Timing and carrier synchronization is a fundamental requirement for any wireless communication system to work properly. Timing synchronization is the process by which a receiver node determines the correct instants of time at which to sample the incoming signal. Carrier synchronization is the process by which a receiver adapts the frequency and phase of its local carrier oscillator with those of the received signal. In this paper, we survey the literature over the last five years (2010-2014) and present a comprehensive literature review and classification of the recent research progress in achieving timing and carrier synchronization in single-input-single-output (SISO), multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO), cooperative relaying, and multiuser/multicell interference networks. Considering both single-carrier and multi-carrier communication systems, we survey and categorise the timing and carrier synchronization techniques proposed for the different communication systems focusing on the system model assumptions for synchronization, the synchronization challenges, and the state-of-the-art synchronization solutions and their limitations. Finally, we envision some future research directions.

Timing and Carrier Synchronization in Wireless Communication Systems: A Survey and Classification of Research in the Last Five Years

A decomposition approach to project compression in CPM/PERT networks with concave activity cost functions

A novel carrier frequency offset algorithm based on a double Barker code in VDE-TER

We present a novel code-aided carrier recovery method for low-density parity-check (LDPC) coded systems, which comprises two supporting algorithms: 1) a coarse synchronization by maximizing a cost function, the mean absolute value of the soft outputs of the LDPC decoder, followed by a simple interpolation operation to improve the estimation accuracy and 2) a fine synchronization based on the soft decisions produced by the LDPC decoder. With moderate computational complexity, this proposed algorithm is designed to synchronize signals with large carrier frequency offset and phase offset at low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). When applied to the case of an 8-PSK system with (1944,972) LDPC code, the performance loss compared to the case of ideal synchronization is negligible.

A Novel Code-Aided Carrier Recovery Algorithm for Coded Systems

Binary continuous phase modulation (CPM) with modulation index $h = 0.5$ can be approximated by a linear modulation, which leads to a low-complexity serial receiver. By reconstructing CPM signals generated with a small modulation index into equivalent CPM signals with modulation index $h = 0.5$ , a low-complexity detector (LCD) for binary CPM with small modulation index is proposed. The complexity of the resulting detector is significantly reduced with respect to that of optimal coherent receivers with negligible performance loss. In addition, the detector can generate appropriate metrics for the soft decision decoding, which is desirable in a coded CPM system.

Zhipeng Xi

Papers

A Novel Code-Aided Carrier Recovery Algorithm for Coded Systems

Low-Complexity Detection of Binary CPM With Small Modulation Index