Coarse Time Synchronization Utilizing Symmetric Properties of Zadoff–Chu Sequences

We demonstrate a novel metric for coarse time synchronization suitable for wireless communication. The novel metric benefits from a symmetry of Zadoff–Chu sequences in the time domain. The time-domain symmetry is obtained after a simple manipulation of the sequence polarity. As opposed to the well-known methods, with the utilization of the Zadoff–Chu sequence symmetry property, more correlation terms are possible to be exploited. Thus, the novel metric provides higher correlation gain and notable improvement in the probability of correct time synchronization. The method is evaluated via Monte-Carlo simulations utilizing unique word single-carrier/frequency-domain equalization frames.