Giannakis, “Blind carrier frequency offset estimation in SISO, MIMO, and multiuser OFDM systems

Abstract—Relying on a kurtosis-type criterion, we develop a low-complexity blind carrier frequency offset (CFO) estimator for orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) systems. We demonstrate analytically how identifiability and performance of this blind CFO estimator depend on the channel’s frequency selectivity and the input distribution. We show that this approach can be applied to blind CFO estimation in multi-input multi-output and multiuser OFDM systems. The issues of channel nulls, multiuser interference, and effects of multiple antennas are addressed analytically, and tested via simulations. Index Terms—Carrier frequency offset (CFO), kurtosis, Multi-input multi-output orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (MIMO-OFDM), multiuser OFDM, orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM). I