Frequency estimation in multipath rayleigh-sparse-fading channels

Maximum-likelihood (ML) data-aided frequency estimation in multipath Rayleigh-fading channels with sparse impulse responses is investigated. We solve this problem under the assumption that the autocorrelation matrix of the pilot signal can be approximated by a diagonal matrix, the fading of different path amplitudes are independent from each other, and the additive noise is white and Gaussian. The ML frequency estimator is shown to be based on combining nonlinearly transformed path periodograms. We have derived the nonlinear function for the two cases: known and unknown fading variances. The new frequency estimators lead, in particular cases, to known ML frequency estimators for nonsparse multipath fading channels. The use of a priori information about the mean number of paths in the channel allows a significant improvement of the accuracy performance. Exploiting the sparseness of the channel impulse response is shown to significantly reduce the threshold signal-to-noise ratio at which the frequency error departs from the Cramer-Rao lower bound. However, precise knowledge of the channel sparseness is not required in order to realize this improvement

Mutual Information and Minimum Mean-square Error in Gaussian Channels

This paper deals with arbitrarily distributed finite-power input signals observed through an additive Gaussian noise channel. It shows a new formula that connects the input-output mutual information and the minimum mean-square error (MMSE) achievable by optimal estimation of the input given the output. That is, the derivative of the mutual information (nats) with respect to the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is equal to half the MMSE, regardless of the input statistics. This relationship holds for both scalar and vector signals, as well as for discrete-time and continuous-time noncausal MMSE estimation. This fundamental information-theoretic result has an unexpected consequence in continuous-time nonlinear estimation: For any input signal with finite power, the causal filtering MMSE achieved at SNR is equal to the average value of the noncausal smoothing MMSE achieved with a channel whose signal-to-noise ratio is chosen uniformly distributed between 0 and SNR

Blind parameter estimation of M-FSK signals in the presence of alpha-stable noise

Blind estimation of parameters for M-ary frequency-shift-keying (M-FSK) signals is great of importance in intelligent receivers. Many existing algorithms have assumed white Gaussian noise. However, their performance severely degrades when grossly corrupted data, i.e., outliers, exist. This paper solves this issue by developing a novel approach for parameter estimation of M-FSK signals in the presence of alpha-stable noise. Specifically, the proposed method exploits the generalized first- and second-order cyclostationarity of M-FSK signals with alpha-stable noise, which results in closed-form solutions for unknown parameters in both time and frequency domains. As a merit, it is computationally efficient and thus can be used for signal preprocessing, symbol timing estimation, signal and noise power estimation. Furthermore, substantial theoretical analysis on the performance of the proposed approach is provided. Simulations demonstrate that the proposed method is robust to alpha-stable noise and that it outperforms the state-of-the-art algorithms in many challenging scenarios

Signal-to-noise ratio estimation in digital computer simulation of lowpass and bandpass systems with applications to analog and digital communications, volume 3

Techniques are developed to estimate power gain, delay, signal-to-noise ratio, and mean square error in digital computer simulations of lowpass and bandpass systems. The techniques are applied to analog and digital communications. The signal-to-noise ratio estimates are shown to be maximum likelihood estimates in additive white Gaussian noise. The methods are seen to be especially useful for digital communication systems where the mapping from the signal-to-noise ratio to the error probability can be obtained. Simulation results show the techniques developed to be accurate and quite versatile in evaluating the performance of many systems through digital computer simulation

Differential Amplify-and-Forward Relaying in Time-Varying Rayleigh Fading Channels

This paper considers the performance of differential amplify-and-forward (D-AF) relaying over time-varying Rayleigh fading channels. Using the auto-regressive time-series model to characterize the time-varying nature of the wireless channels, new weights for the maximum ratio combining (MRC) of the received signals at the destination are proposed. Expression for the pair-wise error probability (PEP) is provided and used to obtain an approximation of the total average bit error probability (BEP). The obtained BEP approximation clearly shows how the system performance depends on the auto-correlation of the direct and the cascaded channels and an irreducible error floor exists at high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Simulation results also demonstrate that, for fast-fading channels, the new MRC weights lead to a better performance when compared to the classical combining scheme. Our analysis is verified with simulation results in different fading scenarios

Performance analysis of signal-to-noise ratio estimators in AWGN and fading channels

Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN) and Rayleigh fading severely degrade the performance of the wireless communication systems. Most of the wireless communication systems require knowledge of the channel Signal-to-Noise ratio. In this paper a few methods are proposed to estimate the SNR in the presence of AWGN and Rayleigh fading. The mean square error (MSE) and root mean square error (RMSE) are used as performance measures. Simulation result shows that the newly proposed estimators mlfad can provide better performance in most circumstances under AWGN and Rayleigh fading channels