Application of the Prony algorithm to a predictive RAKE receiver

The use of RAKE receivers in systems which are subject to rapidly fading multipath propagation requires an adaptive algorithm with a predictive element to avoid large errors due to phase lag. A novel use of Prony´s (1795) method, as a predictive algorithm in RAKE receivers, is proposed, and its performance in terms of bit error rate evaluated using the COST 207 model of a typical urban environment. It has been found that a predictive RAKE receiver using the Prony algorithm performs particularly well at high Doppler frequencies as compared with a similar receiver using alpha-trackers to estimate the tap amplitudes and phases