Symbol Timing Sequence Structure for OFDM-CDMA Communication System under Low SNR

Symbol synchronization offset of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) communication system will cause the rotation of data constellation at receiver even if such offset falls in the range of the appended cyclic prefix. When OFDM modulation is combined with spread spectrum technique, e.g., OFDM code division multiple access (OFDM-CDMA), the problem becomes more serious since OFDM-CDMA communication system generally works under very low signal-to-noise ratio. This paper focuses on symbol timing synchronization of OFDM-CDMA communication system and proposes an effective sequence structure on the basis of circular conjugate-symmetric properties of discrete Fourier transform. The proposed frequency-domain sequence not only can generate real time-domain signal to reduce calculation complexity, but also can resist peak-to-average power ratio of OFDM modulation by exploiting suitable computer search algorithm. The simulation results show a sharp cross-correlation peak can be obtained, which is quite helpful for accurate symbol timing synchronization of OFDM-CDMA communication system.