Energy based signal parameter estimation method and a comparative study of different frequency estimators

The influences of window functions and noise on the performance of the energy-based signal parameter estimation method are investigated, and the appropriate parameters and algorithm are recommended accordingly. The frequency, amplitude and phase estimation variances of the energy based method are deduced and verified by computer simulation. The performances of four frequency estimation methods are compared: the energy based method, the interpolation based method, the phase difference based method and the Fourier transform (FT) continuous zoom based method. For the second and third methods, the Quinn algorithm and the phase difference based method with factor η=0.5 are recommended, respectively. It was found that each method has its own advantages. The energy based method has the best stability compared with others. The interpolated method has the lowest frequency estimation variance when the frequency biasδ is large, while the phase-difference based method does better when δ is low. The change of δ does not influence the maximum frequency estimation error of the FT continuous zoom based method. Comparatively speaking, the phase-difference based method has the least frequency estimation error.