A Fast Time-Delay Estimator of PN Signals

This work proposes an effective time-delay estimator for PN satellite signals, exploiting a fast triangular interpolator, running on three estimated ambiguity samples in the neighborhood of the coarse estimate. Performance analysis (theory and simulation) is carried out in comparison with conventional approaches based on the interpolation, usually carried out by (time-consuming) narrow-band over-sampling or (fast) fitting of few samples of a smoothed function of the ambiguity function around its maximum. The theoretical results, substantiated by computer simulations, have evidenced that the devised method outperforms the conventional estimator for all the timing offsets and is well suited for satellite spread-spectrum communications.