Timing Synchronization and Symbol Detection in Ambient Backscatter Communication

Ambient backscatter communication (AmBC) enables ultra-low-power, low-cost and massive connectivity. However, practical AmBC systems suffer from symbol timing offset (STO) due to propagation delay and backscatter receiver (BR) activation latency, while conventional correlation-based synchronization methods are inapplicable because ambient radio frequency sources are non-cooperative. Moreover, residual STO (RSTO) inevitably remains due to the finite synchronization sequence, which degrades symbol