Carrier frequency synchronization for WLAN systems based on MIMO-OFDM-IM

Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) with index modulation (IM) MIMO-OFDM-IM is a modulation technique that has garnered significant interest in recent times owing to its attraction of smooth transition to greener communications, enhancing efficiency in terms of energy, spectrum and compatibility to previous existing standards without the need for drastic changes in the physical layer. It is also proved that even though OFDM-IM provides better immunity to carrier frequency offset compared to traditional OFDM, the sensitivity to frequency error is still a major issue and it has to be resolved on priority basis to fully exploit the potential offered by the IM technique. In this work, we propose a novel non-data-aided algorithm that efficiently estimates and eliminates the offset present in the received signal. The algorithm has been analyzed for the MIMO-OFDM-IMbased wireless local area network system using the high throughput task group (TGn) MIMO channel models in the presence of AWGN. In addition, it is compared with the other popular blind algorithms based on both pilots and inactive data tones. The simulation plots depict a clear improvement of the new estimator over the existing methods not only in the low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) regions but also in the high SNR region.