A sequential Monte Carlo algorithm for blind timing recovery and data detection

Synchronization algorithms play a vital role in digital transmission. Optimal estimation of the typical synchronization parameters (timing, carrier frequency offset and carrier phase offset) is analytically intractable in most practical cases and, consequently, most existing synchronization methods are either heuristic or based on approximate maximum likelihood (ML) arguments. We introduce a novel blind algorithm for asymptotically optimal timing recovery and data detection. The method is derived within a Bayesian estimation framework, it does not require the transmission of pilot symbols (hence the term "blind") and is implemented via the sequential Monte Carlo (SMC) methodology. SMC techniques are simulation-based methods that have recently gained popularity because they provide an excellent tool for solving a wide range of estimation problems which do not admit analytical solutions.