  EDGE-based EC-GSM-IoT is a promising candidate for the billion-device
cellular IoT (cIoT), providing similar coverage and battery life as NB-IoT. The
goal of 20 dB coverage extension compared to EDGE poses significant challenges
for the initial network synchronization, which has to be performed well below
the thermal noise floor, down to an SNR of -8.5 dB. We present a low-complexity
synchronization algorithm supporting up to 50 kHz initial frequency offset,
thus enabling the use of a low-cost +/-25 ppm oscillator. The proposed
algorithm does not only fulfill the 3GPP requirements, but surpasses them by 3
dB, enabling communication with an SNR of -11.5 dB or a maximum coupling loss
of up to 170.5 dB.
