Performance analysis of CFO estimation for OFDM systems with low-precision quantization

Abstract

Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) techniques have been employed intensively in high data rate communication systems. Unfortunately, analog-to-digital converter (ADC) becomes the limiting factor in implementing these high data rate systems for its costly and power-hungry at high speeds. In this paper, we address the important problem at the front end of an OFDM system, i.e., carrier frequency offset (CFO) when using lower precision ADC, and analyze three CFO estimation algorithms for OFDM system with low-precision quantization. The simulation results verify that the demodulation of a signal with CFO in the case of low-precision quantization can cause a higher bit error rate (BER) compared to full precision quantization, and that the optimal algorithm can effectively reduce the effect of low-precision quantization. Thus, this paper provides a reference to explore the optimized CFO estimation algorithms for OFDM system with low-precision quantization.