Frequency offset and timing estimation in slowly-varying fading channels: A cyclostationary approach

Two open-loop algorithms are developed for estimating jointly frequency offset and symbol timing of a linearly modulated waveform transmitted over a frequency-flat fading channel. The methods exploit the received signal's cyclo-stationarity, and with respect to existing solutions they: (i)take into account the presence of time-selective fading effects; (ii)do not need training data; (iii)do not rely on the Gaussian assumption of the complex equivalent low-pass channel process, and (iv)are tolerant to additive stationary noise of any color or distribution. Performance analysis using Monte Carlo simulations, unifications, and comparisons with existing approaches are also reported.