A fast parameter estimation algorithm for polyphase coded CW signals

A fast parameter estimation algorithm is discussed for a polyphase coded Continuous Waveform (CW) signal in Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN). The proposed estimator is based on the sum of the modulus square of the ambiguity function at the different Doppler shifts. An iterative refinement stage is proposed to avoid the effect of the spurious peaks that arise when the summation length of the estimator exceeds the subcode duration. The theoretical variance of the subcode rate estimate is derived. The Monte-Carlo simulation results show that the proposed estimator is highly accurate and effective at moderate Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR).