Multi-cycle estimator for time-difference-of-arrival (TDOA) and its performance

Single-cycle time-difference-of-arrival estimator utilises signal's cyclostationarity property of only one cycle frequency. A new approach exploiting the signal's cyclostationarity property of more than one cycle frequency is introduced. Compared with the single-cycle estimator, the method can reduce more estimation variance. The qualitative discussion of the performance of multi-cycle estimator is given and the performances of different estimators in various environments are quantitatively measured in terms of root-mean-squared errors from Monte Carlo simulations. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness and superiority of multi-cycle estimator in comparison with the single-cycle estimator and the conventional cross-correlation one.