Finite-Difference Algorithm for Polynomial Phase Signal Parameter Estimation

A new algorithm, the finite-difference algorithm, is proposed for single-component polynomial phase signal parameter estimation. The proposed algorithm takes advantage of the framework of the quasi-maximum-likelihood (QML) estimator but estimates the finite difference of the polynomial instead of the derivative. The algorithm is computationally simpler and has comparable performance to the QML algorithm. A phase centering step is proposed to increase the detectable range of polynomial phase parameters as an alternative to phase unwrapping.