A resource efficient symbol synchronizer implementation for the IEEE 802.11 protocol

Timing Synchronization is an unavoidable task during reception of wireless signals in coherent systems. In Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) systems, like IEEE 802.11a and p, the most employed algorithm for performing this duty is the Schimidl-Cox, and therefore, any effort concerning to its improvement is worthwhile. In this paper, it is presented a modification to this algorithm based on a change of the timing metric, which yield an important reduction of the required computations without affecting the overall performance. The complete architecture of the algorithm is also provided and synthesized in Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) and CMOS technologies. Obtained results showed reduced resources consumption.