Feed-forward phase estimator and tracker under frequency uncertainty and phase noise

The method and apparatus for tracking the frequency and the phase trajectory of a randomly time-varying signal (Bar-David and Taich 1996) are presented. It is useful for tracking signals of randomly time-varying phase, and is illustrated for phase-shift-keyed (MPSK) signals. The block-diagram of the tracker is presented and includes references to central points of the design. A comparison between the novel technique and the phase lock-loop approach is given using: acquisition time, loss of lock, slipping cycles and tracking error variance.