SUBSPACE-BASED ESTIMATION OF TIME DELAYS AND DOPPLER SHIFTS

This paper considers the problem of estimating the time delays and Dop pler shifts of a known waveform received via several distinct paths by an array of antennas. The general maximum likelihood estimator is pre sented, and is shown to require a Sd-dimensional nonlinear minimizatio n, where d is the number of received signal reflections. Two alternati ve solutions based on signal and noise subspace fitting are proposed, requiring only a d-dimensional minimization, In particular, we show ho w to decouple the required search into a two-step procedure, where the delays are estimated and the Dopplers solved for explicitly. Initial conditions for the time delay search can be obtained by applying gener alizations of the MUSIC and ESPRIT algorithms, which are also outlined in the paper. Simulation examples are included to illustrate the algo rithms' performance relative to the Cramer-Rao bound.