Performance of Cyclostationary Detector of SC-FDMA under Synchronization Impairment

In a framework where synchronization issues are taken into account, we examine the performance of a cyclostationary detection scheme proposed for interleaved single carrier frequency division multiple access (SCFDMA). The detection method under investigation here exploits the quasi-periodicity property of interleaved SCFDMA signal. Inserting synchronization pilot signals in the data stream might deteriorate this quasi-periodicity property. Although the detection method is afflicted by pilot signals and loses performance, we show that it still outperforms energy detection and cyclic prefix based detection. We also investigate the performance of the detector when the system is hit by frequency offset. We derive the distribution of the detection metric in the presence of frequency offset. When frequency offset is small enough, we prove that it does not change the metric distribution. We also show that for arbitrary practical frequency offsets, the performance degradation is still negligible.