Maximum likelihood carrier phase recovery for coherently orthogonal CPFSK signals

ML estimation of carrier phase for coherently orthogonal continuous-phase frequency-shift-keying (COCPFSK) signals is considered. Although the estimator, in general is nonimplementable, its high and low signal-to-noise-ratio approximations both lead to linear readily implementable receiver structures. The high SNR approximation yields a DA receiver, whereas the low SNR approximation yields an NDA receiver. The performance of both receivers in term of bit error probability is analyzed. The existence of an unmodulated component in the sufficient statistical representation of a COCPFSK signal is pointed out, and it is shown how this component enters directly into maximum-like carrier recovery. This leads to interpretation of the NDA receiver as a generalization of the conventional matched-filter envelope-detector receiver. The insights gained here are useful to the problem of ML carrier recovery for Viterbi decoding of continuous phase modulation signals