Patent ID: 8107817

Claim:
A method for receiving an optical orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) signal, applicable to an optical OFDM receiver, wherein the receiver receives an optical signal emitted by an optical OFDM emitter, the method comprising: converting the optical signal into a digital signal; estimating a symbol boundary of the digital signal; removing a guard interval of the digital signal according to the symbol boundary, so as to generate a digital electrical signal; converting the digital electrical signal into a plurality of frequency domain sub-carriers Y(k) in a fast Fourier transform (FFT) manner, wherein each of the frequency domain sub-carriers comprises a plurality of symbols, the symbols corresponding to the same frequency domain sub-carrier comprise a plurality of data carrier signals and pilot carrier signals, the pilot carrier signals X(k) are located in the same symbol period, wherein k is an integer greater than or equal to −N/2 and smaller than (N/2)−1, and N is an FFT size; estimating a timing offset τ with at least three pilot carrier signals X(k) and at least three corresponding frequency domain sub-carriers Y(k) corresponding to the same symbol period; and compensating the estimated symbol boundary with the timing offset.