Blind cyclostationary carrier frequency and symbol rate estimation for underwater acoustic communication

In this paper, we propose a new method for blind carrier frequency and symbol rate estimation based on second order cyclostationary features for underwater acoustic communication. Followed by a coarse carrier frequency and symbol rate estimation via spectral analysis, a cyclostationary based estimation algorithm is developed to provide high resolution estimation of both parameters. Specifically, a short time varying resolution spectrum correlation function and spectrum coherence function algorithm is developed to obtain spectral lines in cyclic frequency domain to accurately estimate (1) varying carrier frequency and Doppler shift caused by relative motion and (2) symbol rate for single carrier communication. Simulations confirm the effectiveness, fast speed and low complexity of the proposed algorithm. The proposed method does not assume any a priori knowledge of the target signal.