Variable Guard Interval Based on Maximum Delay Estimation for Adaptive OFDM Systems

In orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) system, a guard interval (GI) is used to remove the inter-symbol interference (ISI) due to a multipath channel. It is difficult to set an optimal GI length in the environment whose multipath varies. In this paper, we propose a variable guard interval based on the estimated maximum delay of a multipath channel. The maximum delay is estimated from a channel impulse response (CIR), which is estimated by a preamble symbol. However, since the estimated CIR includes the noise, it is difficult to decide the optimal GI. In order to solve the problem, we introduce the method which selects the path whose signal to noise ratio is high. Additionally, the information of the optimal GI length is required to be transmitted from a receiver to a transmitter. In this paper, we use an acknowledgment (ACK) frame for the feedback of the GI information.