Semi-blind symbol synchronization for antenna array signal processing in short burst multiuser SDMA systems

The problem of symbol synchronization for semi-blind antenna array signal processing in digital communications is considered. It is relevant to situations where the location of known training symbols within a slot of received data is not known. Training based and blind techniques have been employed to address this problem but they become ineffective when the length of the training sequence and/or the data received under quasi-stationary conditions is not sufficiently long. A more effective semi-blind solution is proposed in this paper. A synchronization algorithm is developed and compared with the known training-based algorithm by means of computer simulations. The testing and evaluation conditions correspond to those of short burst multiuser spatial division multiple access (SDMA) systems.