Flexible guard structure for timing synchronization in coordinated networks

In this letter, a novel and flexible hybrid guard duration (HGD) based on zero tail (ZT) and cyclic prefix (CP) concepts is proposed for facilitating timing synchronization (TS) in coordinated multi-point (COMP) networks. The proposed HGD harmoniously provides enough guard duration for mitigating the channel's delay spread and facilitating TS without extending the total symbol duration while supporting both COMP and non-COMP users. That is, unlike the traditional extended CP (E-CP) approach that degrades the system's spectral efficiency (SE) and elevates the transmission latency due to the extended symbol duration, HGD maintains the usage of the normal CP size and the total symbol duration, thereby ensuring better SE performance and relatively low latency. The proposed HGD is evaluated and compared with the traditional E-CP in terms of bit error rate, SE, and latency.