In direct-conversion orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) receivers, the impact of frequency-dependent I/Q mismatch (IQ-M) with carrier frequency offset (CFO) must be considered. A preamble-assisted estimation is developed to circumvent the frequency-dependent IQ-M with CFO. The results of a simulation and an experiment show that the proposed method could provide good estimation efficiency and enhance the system performance. Moreover, the proposed scheme is compatible with current wireless local area network standards.

This letter proposes a compensation method that can alleviate the problem of I/Q mismatch generated in the direct-conversion receiver of OFDM systems. In the proposed method, the amount of I/Q mismatch is estimated using null-carriers in transmitted signals, and it is subtracted from received symbols to suppress I/Q mismatch effects. Simulations show experiments that the proposed method can effectively eliminate the I/Q mismatch effects.