Time delay estimation via discrete-time “analytic” cross-correlation in HF ionospheric channel

DANILO OBRADOVIĆ

Serbian army, Batajnica, obradovicdanilo@gmail.com

Abstract: Time delay estimation (TDE) between two signals is an important problem in many areas such as hyperbolic positioning (time difference of arrival - TDOA), radar, sonar, etc. This paper addresses the problem of time delay estimation of narrowband periodic chirp signal in HF ionospheric channel with multipath propagation. The HF channel is characterised as a multi-path time-varying environment that produces time and frequency dispersion. A frequency-domain algorithm, so-called “analytic” cross-correlation  is provided for TDE. Two cases are considered for delay estimation: sample-interval resolution and subsample-interval resolution accomplished by interpolation. The validity of this estimation method is demonstrated via simulations.