Patent ID: 8625684

Claim:
A method of estimating a symbol timing offset in an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing communication system, the method comprising: detecting a channel impulse response within a fast Fourier transform (FFT) duration; and calculating a channel delay duration based on the detected channel impulse response, the calculating comprising setting a search range within the FFT duration, detecting peak power within the search range, setting a threshold based on the detected peak power, estimating a starting point and an ending point of the detected channel impulse response within the search range based on the detected peak power and the threshold, and calculating the channel delay duration based on the estimated starting point and ending point; determining whether the calculated channel delay duration is less than or equal to a guard interval within the FFT duration; estimating the symbol timing offset by subtracting a value corresponding to a half of the FFT duration from the estimated starting point in response to the calculated channel delay duration being less than or equal to the guard interval; and resetting the threshold and recalculating the channel delay duration based on the reset threshold in response to the calculated channel delay duration being greater than the guard interval.