AMC Improvements from Robust Estimation

The performance of a cyclostationarity feature based automatic modulation classifier (AMC) is improved by the novel usage of a robust estimate of second order first conjugate cyclostationarity. Using a previously proposed statistical test for identifying cyclostationarity, we show that the distribution of the test statistic at a cycle frequency has larger mean and smaller variance - when it is based on a robust estimate of the second order first conjugate cyclic temporal moment function (CTMF) - than when a classical estimate of the second order first conjugate CTMF is used. The improvements are a 4 dB reduction in SNR requirements, a lower false alarm rate, and reduced sensitivity to receiver bandwidth - when the test uses the robust estimate.