MULTIFRAME ALIGNMENT IN MULTIPOINT-TO-POINT COMMUNICATION USING ORTHOGONAL FREQUENCY DIVISION MULTIPLEXING

摘要

A bidirectional communication system is provided. In one embodiment, a system comprises a host unit including a multicarrier demodulator and a plurality of remote units using a multiple access scheme to communicate at the same time with the host unit multicarrier demodulator using orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM). Each of the plurality of remote units transmits to the host unit using a multiframe pattern, each multiframe of the multiframe pattern being at least a predetermined plurality of consecutive symbols in duration. The host unit determines a timing error for at least one of the remote units; and the host unit sends a timing adjustment signal to the at least one remote unit so that multiframes received at the host unit from the plurality of remote units are aligned at the host unit.