A particle filter for blind timing recovery and data detection in fast fading wireless channels

Accurate estimation of synchronization parameters is a fundamental issue in digital transmission. In this paper, we investigate a novel approach to joint synchronization and blind data detection in frequency non-selective fast fading channels, based on the application of sequential Monte Carlo (SMC) techniques. The algorithm is derived by modeling the transmission process as a dynamic system where the channel parameters and the transmitted symbols are unobserved state variables. The performance of the proposed technique is studied through computer simulations that illustrate the accuracy of timing recovery and the overall performance of the resulting receiver in terms of its symbol error rate (SER).