Methods and apparatus are provided for receiving packets on a channel of an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) system. A time shift value for a packet is estimated using a channel estimation and an FFT size. A synchronization position of the packet on a channel is adjusted using the estimated time shift value, and a filter is applied to the adjusted channel to generate a smoothed channel estimate. Alternatively, a channel with a corrected packet synchronization position is estimated, and a smoothed channel is estimated by applying a filter to the estimated channel. Packets are received on the channel, at a receiver of the OFDM receiving apparatus, in accordance with the estimated smoothed channel.