Robust Symbol Rate Estimation of PSK Signals Under the Cyclostationary Framework

In many communication channels the noise is non-Gaussian and usually exhibits impulsive characteristics. The symbol rate estimation problem of phase-shift keying (PSK) signals in this kind of impulsive noise environment is addressed. Since the performance of the cyclic statistics-based symbol rate estimation methods, which are very effective in Gaussian noise, may deteriorate significantly in the presence of impulsive noise, a robust method under the cyclostationary framework is proposed. Specifically, a robust form of cyclic autocorrelation based on the M-estimate concept is developed. Simulation results show that the proposed robust technique offers a significant performance gain over the cyclic autocorrelation method in impulsive noise.