Mobile unit velocity estimation in micro-cellular systems based on the statistical characteristics of the received signal

Estimation of the maximum Doppler spread or, equivalently, the vehicle velocity is useful in improving handoff algorithms and necessary for the optimal tuning of parameters for systems that adapt to changing channel conditions. A new mobile station velocity estimator is presented based on the time-frequency characteristics of the received signal to evaluate the velocity of Mobile Station, which considers many parameters we need to know beforehand to estimate velocity such as Ricean-factor κ, signal-to-noise ratio γ, scattering directivity χ and jointly uses the first moment of the instantaneous frequency and Zero Crossing Rate of the received signal by employing the first three spectral moments of received signal. The proposed method has superior performance compared to other velocity estimation methods because it considers many parameters´ effect which is not or partly not considered in existing velocity estimators. Simulations illustrate our approach.