A packet detection method for zero-padded orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) transmission is presented. The proposed algorithm effectively conducts packet detection by employing both an M-sample time delayed cross correlation value, and a received signal power calculated by using the received input samples corresponding to the zero padding (ZP) intervals or less.

This paper proposes a channel estimation technique which uses a postfixed pseudo-noise (PN) sequence combined with zero padding to accurately estimate the channel impulse response for mobile orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) communications. The major advantage of the proposed techniques is the periodical insertion of PN sequences after each OFDM symbol within the original guard interval in conventional zero-padded OFDM or within the original cyclic prefix (CP) in conventional CP-OFDM. In addition, the proposed technique takes advantage of null samples padded after the PN sequences for reducing inter-symbol interference occurring with the information detection in conventional pseudo-random-postfix OFDM. The proposed technique successfully applies either (1) least-squares algorithm with decision-directed data-assistance, (2) approximate least-squares estimation, or (3) maximum-likelihood scheme with various observation windows for the purpose of improving channel estimation performance. Some comparative simulations are given to illustrate the excellent performance of the proposed channel estimation techniques in mobile environments.

This letter proposes an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) frame synchronization scheme when the guard interval (GI) consists of a zero-padded (ZP) sequence. The frame synchronization method uses the ZP symbol where nothing is transmitted for GI so that the drop in received power can be detected to find the beginning of the frame. Simulations reveal that this method significantly improves synchronization performance of the ZP-OFDM system in a multipath fading channel.