The invention relates to a 
symbol synchronization and Doppler compensation method for a mobile 
orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) 
underwater sound communication 
signal. The method comprises the following steps of: obtaining rough 
estimation of a first OFMD symbol start position according to a frame header 
signal, extracting a symbol, then obtaining Doppler expansion rough 
estimation of the symbol according to a frequency measurement simple-frequency 
signal in the symbol, converting the symbol to a 
frequency domain according to 
Chirp-z conversion, searching a precise start moment and a Doppler expansion amount of the symbol by taking a 
pilot of the 
frequency domain and a relevant value of a local 
pilot as cost functions, presuming the start position of the next symbol according to the start position of the current symbol, extracting the next symbol, and repeating the operations till the end of a frame of signal. According to the Doppler measurement and compensation method, based on the 
Chirp-z conversion, the measurement and compensation precision is high; the 
Chirp-z conversion is implemented according to fast Fourier transformation (FFT); the practicability is high; according to the Doppler expansion search method which is in a manner that large step length is superior to small step length, so that the search efficiency is high; a Doppler measurement range is not limited; and the method can be used for constant-speed motion and variable-speed motion.