Time of arrival estimation of wideband echoes based on Wigner-Ville distribution

Time of arrival estimation methods of wideband echoes based on Wigner-Ville Distribution (WVD), a typical Time-Frequency Analysis method, are presented. The estimation method of the WVD-based time-frequency correlation has an identical performance to that of the matched filter for a known signal. Furthermore, two improved methods, the method of XWVD-based correlation in frequency domain and the XWVD peak estimation method, are presented. It is shown by computer simulation that all the three estimation methods have good performance under low SNR., and the computation of the two improved methods have been greatly reduced. Finally, the effects of the duration and bandwidth of a LFM signal on estimation are also discussed.