Sequential Monte Carlo Method for Fixed Symbol Timing Estimation and Data Detection

Accurate estimation of symbol sampling instants is critical for reliable detection of transmitted symbols in communication systems. In this paper, we deal with the problem of joint estimation of symbol timing and transmitted symbols using sequential Monte Carlo (SMC) methods. Previous research work has developed SMC methods that achieve excellent performance in estimating channel reference parameters that include the symbol timing. However, these SMC methods are developed based on the assumption that the symbol-timing is time-varying, as a result, their application may be limited to systems whose symbol timing can be modeled as such. In this paper, we extend the work to problems where the symbol-timing is fixed. The posterior probability density of the fixed symbol timing is approximated by a beta distribution function whose parameters are sequentially updated. With such an approximation, an efficient SMC algorithm is developed that estimate the transmitted symbols and the symbol timing jointly.