Non-data-aided ML symbol timing estimation in MIMO correlated fading channels

In this paper, the non-data-aided (NDA) maximum likelihood (ML) symbol timing estimator in MIMO correlated channel is derived. It is found that the extended square nonlinearity estimator in [9] is just a special case of the proposed algorithm. Furthermore, the conditional Cramer-Rao bound (CCRB) and the modified Cramer-Rao bound (MCRB) are also established. Simulation results under different operating conditions (e.g., number of antennas and correlation between antennas) are given to assess the performances of the NDA ML estimator and it is found that the mean square errors (MSE)s of the NDA ML estimator i) are close to the CCRBs, but not the MCRBs; ii) are approximately independent of the number of transmit antennas; iii) are inversely proportional to the number of receive antennas and iv) correlation between antennas has little effect on the MSE performance.