Receiver structures and error rate performance for signals with unknown frequency

Receiver structures for an optimal noncoherent receiver when a transmitted signal experiences a random frequency shift are derived. Error rate performance, obtained by simulation, is then developed and compared with the standard noncoherent correlator. Results indicate that 1) ignoring the frequency shift by using a standard noncoherent correlator leads to severely degraded performance relative to the optimal noncoherent receiver and 2) even the optimal noncoherent receiver accommodating a random frequency shift exhibits degraded performance as the unknown frequency range grows