Patent ID: 7817736

Claim:
A method of recovering data symbols from a multi-carrier signal having a plurality of sub-channels, said multi-carrier signal having a first carrier frequency and comprising a plurality of streams of symbols encoded in a corresponding one of said plurality of sub-channels, wherein a first set of streams of symbols comprising a first pilot symbol contained in a first sub-channel of said plurality of sub-channels and a second pilot symbol contained in a second sub-channel of said plurality of sub-channels, wherein said first set of streams of symbols constitute pilot symbols and a second set of streams of symbols constitute said data symbols, wherein said first set of streams of symbols and said second set of streams of symbols are comprised in said plurality of streams of symbols, wherein said pilot symbols are associated with a predetermined characteristic, said method comprising: receiving said multi-carrier signal; down-converting said multi-carrier signal using a second carrier frequency to obtain a base band signal, wherein a carrier frequency offset equals a difference of said first carrier frequency and said second carrier frequency; processing said base-band signal to recover said plurality of streams of data symbols as well as a phases of pilot signals contained in said first set of streams of symbols; determining a carrier frequency offset based on a deviation of weighted average of said phases of said first pilot symbol and said second pilot symbol from said predetermined characteristic; providing said weighted average of the phases to a phase locked loop (PLL) to obtain an estimate of said carrier frequency offset, wherein said estimate of said carrier frequency offset is used to generate a carrier frequency offset correction factor; and correcting for said carrier frequency offset using said carrier frequency offset correction factor in said time domain before said processing processes said base-band signal, wherein said correcting corrects for said carrier frequency offset in said data symbols as well as said pilot symbols generating a cancellation factor to cancel a correction in said pilot symbols for said carrier frequency offset caused by said correcting.