Block-size estimation and application to BTFD for 3GPP UMTS

In some communications systems, it is required to estimate the size of the received frame, or block, blindly, that is, using only the received frame. An example where such a problem arises is third generation WCDMA UMTS systems, where it is sometimes required to perform a blind transport format detection. We propose and evaluate a novel method for block-size detection for MPSK signalling based on the maximum-likelihood principle. The method we propose can either be used to estimate the block-size directly when the operating SNR yields a satisfactory "one-shot" detection error probability, or it can be used as a good "coarse" estimate of the block-size. That is, it is used to obtain a good guess of only a few potential block-size candidates, instead of scanning all possible candidates, and then a more accurate detection technique, however more complex, is used to narrow down the number of potential candidates to one successful candidate.