Time synchronization in amplify-and-forward cooperative communication systems

The synchronization problem in wireless communication systems becomes more important especially in cooperative communication systems than it is for other diversity systems because all terminals in the cooperation use their own local oscillators. In this study, a maximum likelihood based receiver is proposed as a solution to time synchronization problem in cooperative communication systems. The bit error rate performance of the proposed receiver is demonstrated by using computer simulations. Based on experimental results, we see that a considerable amount of power gain can be obtained using the proposed receiver. This power gain is increased as the time difference between signals arriving to the receiver from different terminals goes up.