A Rapid Prototype of an IEEE802.11a Synchronizer

Abstract: The first part of the thesis consists of a theoretical overview of OFDM, the effects of different imperfections like carrier frequency offset, timing offset and phase noise followed by a short overview of the IEEE802.11a standard for WLAN. The second part consists of an overview of a number of different techniques for synchronization that have been published. A technique based on correlation in the time domain is chosen and implemented as a floaing-point model and later as a fixed-point model using Matlab, Simulink and Xilinx System Generator. The fixed-point model is then synthesized to an FPGA to verify that the design flow works and that a required clock frequency can be achieved.