A novel fine frequency estimation serial architecture applied in satellite communications

This paper presents the architecture of a pilot-based Fine Frequency Estimator (FFE) based on a modified version of the Luise & Reggiannini (L&R) algorithm. The proposed architecture uses a serial correlator implementation to reduce the hardware complexity. The estimator was implemented targeting a digital receiver for the DVB-S2 standard, and with minor changes it can also support DVB-S2X receivers. Furthermore, it can be implemented in any communication system that provides pilot symbol sequences. Results show that the proposed FFE has a performance compatible with the conventional schemes, and presents a significant resources usage reduction of 78%.