Integer frequency offset recovery in OFDM systems

This paper addresses the estimation of the integer part of the carrier frequency offset (CFO) in orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems. A novel method is presented based on the maximum likelihood (ML) approach that jointly estimates the channel impulse response (CIR) and the integer CFO. The new scheme estimates the CIR by using pilots and obtains the estimate of the integer CFO by taking advantage of the effect of the CFO on the CIR and data symbols. The performance of the new method is evaluated in Rayleigh fading channels. The results demonstrate that the proposed scheme significantly outperforms the previous methods.