Abstract:
In this paper we discuss the performance of a correlator
based frequency estimator (CE). The estimator is
statistically analysed for single-tone frequency estimation
for an additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel.
The CE is a maximum likelihood estimator (ML) [7] which
theoretically achieves the Cramer-Rao lower bound (CRB)
171 if properly implemented. Frequency estimates on the
received single-tone signal are made by correlating the
received signal with a locaIly generated signal by varying
the frequency, and maximizing the energy at the output of
the correlator. The statistical distribution of the frequency
estimates, made by the CE is studied; we consider four
different cases as discussed in the paper for the
distribution, whilst providing simulation results to verify
the analysis.
