Cyclo-period estimation for discrete-time cyclo-stationary signals

This paper presents a new method, named as the variability method, to estimate the cyclo-period of a discrete-time cyclo-stationary signal. The method is essentially based on the time-varying correlation and/or the time-varying mean, whose estimators are associated with some statistics of blocked signals; a plot of variability of these statistics as a function of the blocking operator index visually reveals a periodic pattern, from which the cyclo-period is obtained. Properties of the variability method are analyzed and compared with three existing cyclo-period estimation methods via simulation and real-life examples.