Synchronization in OFDM powerline communication systems in presence of narrowband interferences

Residential power lines provide a low-cost alternative for the establishment of broadband home networks to wireless or twisted-pair phone-line channels. In addition to being subjected to a variety of noise and distortion sources, the received signal in a power line communication system is also affected by narrowband interferences, primarily from amateur and short wave radios. Though the effect of such jammers on data demodulation in OFDM systems can be largely circumvented by coding techniques, acquisition algorithms such as symbol synchronization which are performed at beginning of each packet are quite adversely affected. That in turn hampers the reliable demodulation of the entire packet. In this paper, we present a symbol synchronization method which is quite robust even when the signal to interference ratio in the channel is quite low. The proposed technique is tested on an OFDM communication system designed for high rate communication over power lines.