Multiplication-Free Detection Algorithm of the Primary Synchronization Signal in LTE

Frame synchronization is an important functionality that should be supported in the design of an LTE baseband receiver. Detecting the start of a frame is regularly repeated during transmission and to identify the cells of the network. Typically, the synchronization is performed using correlation-based methods that incur a large number of multiplications and thus increase the power consumption and hardware complexity. Approaches to reduce the rate of multiplications come at the expense of reduced performance of the algorithm. In this paper, we present a multiplication-free synchronization algorithm that is based on K-means clustering and distributed arithmetic and uses the primary synchronization signal (PSS). We also show through simulations that the immense improvement in power consumption and hardware complexity does not entail a degradation in performance compared to current synchronization techniques.