A Novel Frequency Offset Estimation Algorithm Using Differential Combining for OFDM-Based WLAN Systems

The timing offset is one of the main error sources in estimating the frequency offset in orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM)-based wireless local area network (WLAN) systems. Although some works have been done to mitigate the effect of the timing offset on the frequency offset estimation, most of the investigations require the knowledge of the timing offset range, which is not generally available in practical systems. In this paper, we propose a new frequency offset estimation algorithm using differential combining between two successive correlation samples, which does not require the knowledge of the timing offset range, and thus, is robust to the timing offset variation. The simulation results show that the proposed algorithm is not only robust to the timing offset variation, but also generally performs better than the conventional algorithm, in the case of the timing offset range being not known exactly.