A new velocity estimator for cellular systems based on higher order crossings

Velocity estimation is of great importance in mobile cellular systems and is essential for satisfactory handoff performance, effective dynamic channel assignment, etc. In this article, the rate of maxima of the received signal envelope is proposed as a new velocity estimator. Required formulas are derived analytically, and the performance of this estimator in the presence of Gaussian noise, nonisotropic scattering, Rayleigh fading, and lognormal shadowing is compared with the conventional zero crossing rate estimator. This new estimator has much superior robustness against variations of SNR and scattering density, and similar to the zero crossing rate estimator, its quality deteriorates in the presence of shadowing.