Theoretical Performance Comparison: Closed- vs Open-Loop Bearing Estimation, Using Phase

Two basic approaches to the problem of estimating bearing in the ocean are compared. These approaches, both of which utilize signal phase, rather than amplitude, information, are the traditional closed-loop method and a newer open-loop concept. The relative theoretical performance is determined in terms of the standard deviation of fluctuation in the bearing estimate, normalized for universality. Bias considerations are neglected for simplicity. When the resulting closed- and open-loop performance curves are compared, it is found that there is little difference between them at high signal-to-noise ratios.