Joint detection of carrier and timing parameters in digital communications is an alternative of recent interest when compared with individual acquisitions of each one of the parameters. The eigenvalue decomposition method of the signal structured covariance matrix is applied to jointly synchronize carrier frequency and timing (symbol transitions) in a full digital receiver. A very fast acquisition stage is obtained when phase shift keying (PSK) and minimum shift keying (MSK) signals are transmitted in an additive Gaussian noise channel. The parameters of interest are estimated from the signal subspace as a fast and computationally efficient alternative to the matched filter technique to estimate the timing parameter and also an alternative to the classic bank of filters technique used to acquire the carrier frequency parameter.

Peer Reviewed