Optimal blind carrier synchronization for M-PSK burst transmissions

This paper introduces a family of blind feedforward nonlinear estimators for joint estimation of carrier phase, frequency offset and Doppler rate for burst-mode phase shift keying (PSK) transmissions. An optimal or “matched” nonlinear estimator that exhibits the smallest asymptotic variance within the family of envisaged estimators is developed. The asymptotic performance of these estimators is established in closed-form expression and compared with the Cramèr-Rao lower bound for an unmodulated carrier. Finally, computer simulations are presented to corroborate the theoretical performance analysis.