Comparison of frequency domain and time domain method for single tone detection

Periodogram is a simple and efficient way to detect sinusoidal signal in the frequency domain, but the optimum detector for single tone is considered to be matched filter method in the time domain. In this paper, the standard periodogram is compared to the matched filter method. Their performance at low signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) and high SNRs are discussed respectively. Simulation results show that the standard periodogram is a good approximation to the optimum detector in the time domain, and more practical than the optimum method.