In this letter, a robust time synchronization algorithm is proposed for MIMO-OFDM based WLAN systems. IEEE 802.11ac MIMO-OFDM WLAN standard specifies that the preamble with cyclic shift diversity (CSD) scheme is used for time and frequency synchronization. However, since the CSD scheme introduces multiple cross-correlation peaks at the receiver, serious performance degradation appears if the conventional cross-correlation based algorithm is applied. In the proposed algorithm, the time synchronization error due to multiple peaks is compensated by adding the cross-correlation value to its reverse cyclic-shifted version. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm achieves an SNR gain of 1.5 to 4.5dB for the synchronization failure rate of 10-2 compared with the existing algorithms.

A robust time synchronization algorithm is proposed for orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) based aeronautical mobile airport communication systems (AeroMACS). Using a very sharp timing metric obtained from the preamble, the proposed algorithm shows very robust time synchronization performance for various channel models in an airport. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm achieves an SNR gain of 2 to 3dB at the failure rate of 10-2 to 10-3 compared with previous algorithms.