This paper proposes a preamble-based cell search scheme for OFDMA cellular systems. The first training symbol is common to all cells enabling a fast and robust synchronization in cellular environment. The synchronization includes frame detection, the integral part and fractional part of carrier frequency offset, fine symbol timing. The second training symbol is cell specific. Inference inter-cells or inter-sectors can be mitigated by modulating different subcarrier sets in frequency domain. Furthermore, to compensate the channel impairments, a differentia-based cell identification algorithm in frequency domain is proposed. Simulation results show that the proposed preamble-based cell search scheme is robust and efficient in cellular environment in multipath fading channel.