Orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) systems are highly sensit
ive to synchronization errors. In this paper, we introduce an algorithm for
the blind estimation of symbol timing and carrier frequency offset in wire
less OFDM systems, The proposed estimator is an extension of the Gini-Giann
akis estimator for single-carrier systems. It exploits the cyclostationarit
y of OFDM signals and relies on second-order statistics only, Our method fa
n be applied to pulse shaping OFDM systems with arbitrary time-frequency gu
ard regions, OFDM based on offset quadrature amplitude modulation, and bior
thogonal frequency-division multiplexing systems. We furthermore propose th
e use of different subcarrier transmit powers (subcarrier weighting) and pe
riodic transmitter preceding to achieve a carrier frequency acquisition ran
ge of the entire bandwidth of the OFDM signal, and a symbol timing acquisit
ion range of arbitrary length, Finally, we provide simulation results demon
strating the performance of the new estimator.