Patent ID: 7602870
Filing Date: 2009-10-13
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A symbol timing estimation method for use in a communication system in which symbols are successively transmitted in a radio signal, each symbol comprising a predetermined number of symbol samples, and in which a series of L symbol samples is repeated N symbol samples after its original appearance, where L and N are integers, which method comprises: receiving said radio signal with a receiver and processing in the receiver the symbol samples in the received radio signal using N and L to obtain a correlation function for the originally-appearing series and the repeated series; producing in the receiver a basic measure for symbol timing estimation based on the obtained correlation function; producing in the receiver a second-derivative measure for symbol timing estimation based on a second derivative of the basic measure; and estimating in the receiver the symbol timing based on the basic and second-derivative measures; wherein the symbol timing is estimated using a restriction in which the symbol timing estimate is not later than the timing of the peak in said basic measure, a restriction in which the symbol timing estimate is not earlier by more than L samples than the peak of said basic measure, and a restriction in which the symbol timing estimate is not earlier than the peak of said second-derivative measure.