An Efficient Algorithm and Hardware Architecture for Maximum-Likelihood Based Carrier Frequency Offset Estimation in MIMO Systems

Carrier frequency offset (CFO), which is often caused by the mismatch between the local oscillators in transmitter and receiver, limits the performance of multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) wireless communication systems. This paper presents a maximum-likelihood-based CFO estimation algorithm for MIMO systems and its efficient hardware design. The proposed algorithm can accurately estimate the CFO, especially at high signal-to-noise ratio. Moreover, the Cramer–Rao lower bound of the proposed method is derived as a performance guideline. In terms of hardware implementation, an efficient pipeline architecture is presented in detail, showing that the architecture only occupies minimal hardware resources so that it can be fitted into a small field-programmable gate array. The proposed architecture can be reconfigured according to different pilot lengths, making it flexible to various frame structures.

[1]  K. V. S. Hari,et al.  Joint estimation of synchronization impairments in MIMO-OFDM system , 2012, 2012 National Conference on Communications (NCC).

[2]  Chintha Tellambura,et al.  Joint channel and frequency offset estimation and training sequence design for MIMO systems over frequency selective channels , 2004, IEEE Global Telecommunications Conference, 2004. GLOBECOM '04..

[3]  Maryline Hélard,et al.  FPGA Implementation of an Iterative Receiver for MIMO-OFDM Systems , 2008, IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications.

[4]  Umberto Mengali,et al.  Synchronization Techniques for Digital Receivers , 1997, Applications of Communications Theory.

[5]  Mark Cummings,et al.  FPGA in the software radio , 1999, IEEE Commun. Mag..

[6]  Ian Vince McLoughlin,et al.  Efficient Integer Frequency Offset Estimation Architecture for Enhanced OFDM Synchronization , 2016, IEEE Transactions on Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) Systems.

[7]  Nemai Chandra Karmakar,et al.  MIMO Implementation Using FPGA , 2018 .

[8]  Yuhei Nagao,et al.  RTL Design of Joint CFO and IQ-Imbalance Compensator for Narrow-Band Wireless System , 1970 .

[9]  Tokunbo Ogunfunmi,et al.  Efficient FPGA-Based Implementations of MIMO-OFDM Physical Layer , 2012, Circuits Syst. Signal Process..

[10]  Michael P. Fitz,et al.  Frequency offset compensation of pilot symbol assisted modulation in frequency flat fading , 1997, IEEE Trans. Commun..

[11]  Tung-Sang Ng,et al.  Correlation-based frequency offset estimation in MIMO system , 2003, 2003 IEEE 58th Vehicular Technology Conference. VTC 2003-Fall (IEEE Cat. No.03CH37484).

[12]  Peter Zipf,et al.  An FPGA-Based Linear All-Digital Phase-Locked Loop , 2010, IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems I: Regular Papers.

[13]  Dae-Ki Hong,et al.  Robust frequency offset estimation for pilot symbol assisted packet CDMA with MIMO antenna systems , 2002, IEEE Communications Letters.

[14]  Jeich Mar,et al.  FPGA Implementation of SDR Based CFO Estimation and Compensation Circuit for OFDM System , 2012, J. Signal Process. Syst..

[15]  K. J. Ray Liu,et al.  High Resolution Carrier Frequency Offset Estimation in Time-Reversal Wideband Communications , 2018, IEEE Transactions on Communications.

[16]  Ying-Chang Liang,et al.  Joint channel and frequency offset estimation in distributed MIMO flat-fading channels , 2008, IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications.

[17]  Michael Rice,et al.  Digital Communications: A Discrete-Time Approach , 2008 .

[18]  Thang X. Vu,et al.  16-QAM Transmitter and Receiver Design Based on FPGA , 2010, 2010 Fifth IEEE International Symposium on Electronic Design, Test & Applications.

[19]  Andrew G. Klein,et al.  Software Receiver Design: Build your Own Digital Communication System in Five Easy Steps , 2011 .

[20]  Marc Moeneclaey,et al.  Computationally efficient frequency offset estimation for flat-fading MIMO channels: performance analysis and training sequence design , 2004, IEEE Global Telecommunications Conference, 2004. GLOBECOM '04..

[21]  Mohamed Siala,et al.  An efficient reduced-complexity two-stage differential sliding correlation approach for OFDM synchronization in the multipath channel , 2012, 2012 IEEE Wireless Communications and Networking Conference (WCNC).

[22]  C.-C. Jay Kuo,et al.  Maximum-likelihood synchronization and channel estimation for OFDMA uplink transmissions , 2006, IEEE Transactions on Communications.

[23]  Chun-Wei Huang,et al.  Maximum likelihood carrier frequency offset estimation algorithm with adjustable frequency acquisition region , 2018, J. Frankl. Inst..

[24]  George K. Karagiannidis,et al.  Joint Estimation of Channel and Oscillator Phase Noise in MIMO Systems , 2012, IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing.

[25]  Marc Moeneclaey,et al.  reduced complexity data-aided and code-aided frequency offset estimation for flat-fading MIMO channels , 2006, IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications.