Patent ID: 7254204

Claim:
A method for symbol timing synchronization in an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) communication system, the method comprising: (a) converting a time domain digital signal to a corresponding frequency domain digital signal; (b) calculating phase angles of tones of at least one symbol of the frequency domain digital signal when a symbol timing offset exists; (c) calculating at least one differential phase offset (DPO), which is the difference between two consecutive gaps, wherein a gap is the difference between the phase angle of a tone of the symbol of the frequency domain digital signal when the timing offset of the symbol exists and a correct phase angle of the tone of the symbol of the frequency domain digital signal; and (d) estimating the symbol timing offset utilizing a histogram of a group of DPOs, wherein the histogram is obtained by dividing the interval 0 to 2π into a plurality of sub intervals, and counting the number of DPOs that fall into each sub interval.