Patent ID: 8036290

Claim:
A method of computing a minimum variance unbiased estimator comprising: receiving a first OFDM symbol on a frequency band; obtaining a first frequency domain representation of the first OFDM symbol, z l,k , at a pair of pilot tones ±k, where l is a symbol time index associated with the first OFDM symbol; receiving a second OFDM symbol sent in the frequency band; obtaining a second frequency domain representation of the second OFDM symbol, z l′,±k , at the pair of pilot tones ±k, where l′ is a symbol time index associated with the second OFDM symbol; determining a differential phase metric associated with the first OFDM symbol and the second OFDM symbol, by multiplying the first frequency domain representation by a complex conjugate of the second frequency domain representation to form the frequency domain statistic x l,±k =z l,±k z l′,±k *; and computing the minimum variance unbiased estimator using the frequency domain statistic, the minimum variance unbiased estimator comprising ⁢ x l , k - ⁢ x l , - k ⁢ x l , k + ⁢ x l , - k ⁢ ⁢ or ⁢ ⁢ ⁢ x l , k + ⁢ x l , - k ⁢ x l , k + ⁢ x l , - k .