Joint synchronization in Eureka 147 DAB system based on abrupt phase change detection

We present a joint symbol, frame, and carrier synchronization method for the Eureka 147 DAB signal. Symbol timing is determined first by detecting an abrupt change in the phase angle of the complex product between the last quarter of a useful symbol and its cyclic extension in the guard interval. The detection of this abrupt change is based an the maximal likelihood (hit) principle. Frequency offset of fractional carrier spacing is estimated from the phase angle of the autocorrelation after symbol timing is estimated. Coarse frame synchronization and null symbol detection can also be achieved through this correlation information. Frequency offset of integral carrier spacing is determined from the convolution outputs between a received phase reference symbol and several locally generated but frequency-shifted phase reference symbols. We found the length of a guard interval is the most important parameter for the synchronization algorithm to work. Simulation results show that the performance of this synchronization method approaches to the ideal synchronization case in both an additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel and a two-path Rayleigh fading channel.