An efficient algorithm for joint estimation of differential time delays and frequency offsets

ABSTRACT This paper introduces an efficient algorithm that jointly estimates differential time delays and frequency offsets between two signals. The approach is a two-step procedure. First, the differential frequency offsets are estimated from measurement of the autocorrelation functions of the received and transmitted signals. The time delays are estimated from estimates of the higher-order statistics of the two signals involved. The major advantage of the new approach is its remarkably reduced computational complexity over traditional approaches. The experimental resuits indicate that the algorithm performs better than the traditional methods in most cases of interest in spite of its reduced computational complexity.