Study of the Sensitivity of the OFDM Wireless Systems to the Carrier Frequency Offset (CFO)

As it has already been revealed, the OFDM systems are very sensitive to the CFO. CFO is one of the most important drawbacks of the OFDM wireless systems. CFO destroys the orthogonality relationship between the subcarrier and creates ICI in OFDM systems. ICI can create frequency mismatched between the transmitter and receiver; this frequency mismatch can lead to the severe performance degradation issue for OFDM wireless systems. However for having a reliable receiver the effect of the CFO must be estimated and compensated in receiver side. This paper reviews the reasons of the creating CFO and analyses its effects on the performance of the OFDM systems. The results clearly illustrate the effects of CFO.