This invention improves the frequency acquisition range and the resistance to multipath interference. In a digital signal transmission system using OFDM, on the transmission side, some or all of a plurality of equidistant carrier positions are treated as reference carrier positions. The actual transmitted carriers are arranged in a predetermined pattern non-equidistant to the frequency carrier positions to form an OFDM symbol. This OFDM symbol is periodically transmitted as frequency reference symbols. On the reception side, the carrier arrangement pattern of the frequency reference symbols is detected, a carrier frequency offset is detected from the detected pattern offset, and the carrier frequency is compensated based on the frequency offset.