Adaptive time delay estimation for sinusoidal signal

An adaptive algorithm is proposed for time delay estimation between sinusoidal signals received at two spatially separated sensors. The idea is to model the differential delay by an FIR filter whose coefficients are samples of a sine function. The delay estimate is updated directly on a sample-by-sample basis using the least mean square method, and its convergence behavior and mean square delay error are analyzed. The delay estimation performance of the algorithm can be further improved when the signal and noise powers are available. Computer simulations are presented to validate the theoretical derivations of the proposed estimator for static and linearly varying delays.