Timing Estimation based on Higher-Order Cyclostationarity for Faster-than-Nyquist Signals

Faster-than-Nyquist (FTN) transmission is a promising technique to increase the spectral efficiency at a fixed constellation size. However, traditional timing synchronization algorithms mostly rely on the eye diagram opening after matched-filtering (e.g., Gardner and zero-crossing). Such approaches are, thus, unsuitable in the presence of the FTN-induced intersymbol interference. In this letter, we first show that FTN signals exhibit cyclostationarity at the lth order (l > 2) according to their bandwidth and symbol period. Then, we derive non-data-aided timing offset estimators from the cyclic temporal cumulant function. Besides its relevance for strong FTN scenarios, the proposed solution is also robust to frequency and phase offsets.

faster-than-nyquist; timing synchronization; higher-order cyclostationarity; non-data-aided

Timing Estimation based on Higher-Order Cyclostationarity for Faster-than-Nyquist Signals Articles