Performance of correlation-based frequency estimation methods in the presence of multiplicative noise

This paper provides a comprehensive performance evaluation of a correlation-based frequency estimator under different fading channel conditions. The efficiency of the estimator in terms of the Cramer-Rao lower bound (CRB) is investigated for different fading conditions, i.e., slow fading, fast fading, Rayleigh fading, and Ricean fading. The asymptotic CRB, which provides an insight to the frequency estimation in fading channels, has been evaluated via a frequency-domain approach. The optimal correlation lag value suitable for frequency estimation under different fading conditions is determined, and closed-form expressions for the variance of the estimates are provided. For proper implementation of the estimator, the Doppler spread of the signal is also estimated. It is shown that using the Doppler spread information, frequency estimation accuracy at low signal-to-noise ratios can be improved using multiple lags of correlations