Timing and Carrier Synchronization in SC-FDMA Extended System for DVB-RCS2

The second generation digital television broadcasting interactive satellite system (DVB-RCS2) plays an important role in the satellite communications. Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access (SC-FDMA) is a modulation technique known for its low peak-to-average ratio (PAPR) and high spectral efficiency. However, SC-FDMA is more sensitive than single carrier system to synchronization errors. In this paper, it is proposed a timing and carrier synchronization algorithm that relies on the configuration of the reference signals in SC-FDMA Extended system for DVB-RCS2. The timing synchronization algorithm is designed based on the cyclic zero autocorrelation property of ZC sequences. Carrier synchronization consists of coarse synchronization and fine synchronization. The range of frequency offset is narrowed down in the coarse synchronization stage, and the residual offset is estimated based on the code-aided (CA) algorithm using the compensation value after the coarse estimation in the fine synchronization stage. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm can achieve a performance similar to the ideal synchronization.