Blind estimation of carrier frequency offset, I/Q imbalance and DC offset for OFDM systems

Abstract

Sensitivity to carrier frequency offset (CFO) is one of the biggest drawbacks of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) system. A lot of CFO estimation algorithms had been studied for compensation of CFO in OFDM system. However, with the adoption of direct-conversion architecture (DCA), which introduces additional impairments such as dc offset (DCO) and in-phase/quadrature (I/Q) imbalance in OFDM system, the established CFO estimation algorithms suffer from performance degradation. In our previous study, we developed a blind CFO, I/Q imbalance and DCO estimation algorithm for OFDM systems with DCA. In this article, we propose an alternative algorithm with reduced computation complexity and better accuracy. Performance of the proposed algorithm is demonstrated by simulations. © 2012 Liu and Li.