Maximizing the Viterbi Winning Path Metric to Estimate Carrier Frequency and Phase Offsets in Continuous Phase Modulated Signals

A system and method for estimating carrier frequency offset Δf and carrier phase offset φ0 inherent in a received CPM signal. Samples of a continuous phase modulated (CPM) signal are received. A maximum of an objective function J is determined over a two-dimensional region parameterized by frequency offset v and phase offset w. The coordinates vmax and wmax of a maximizing point in the region represent estimates of the carrier frequency offset Δf and the carrier phase offset φ0. To evaluate the objective function J at a point (v, w), apply a frequency shift of amount −v and a phase shift of amount −w to the received samples to obtain modified samples, and perform Viterbi demodulation on the modified samples to obtain a winning path metric value at a final time. The winning path metric value is the objective function value J(v, w). QC 20141201