Timing synchronization using cross ambiguity function for MIMO OFDM systems with distributed antennas

In this letter, we propose a novel timing offset estimation method for multiple input multiple output (MIMO) orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems with distributed antennas using cross ambiguity function (CAF). The proposed algorithm has an impulse-shaped timing metric which allowed it to reduce the uncertainty due to the timing metric plateau. Simulation results show that the mean square error (MSE) performance of the proposed method is significantly improved.