Analysis of polynomial-phase signals by the integrated generalized ambiguity function

The aim of this work is the performance analysis of a method for the detection and parameter estimation of mono or multicomponent polynomial-phase signals (PPS) embedded in white Gaussian noise and based on a generalized ambiguity function. The proposed method is shown to be asymptotically efficient for second-order PPS and nearly asymptotically efficient for third-order PPS's. The method presents some advantages with respect to similar techniques, like the polynomial-phase transform, for example, in terms of i) a closer approach to the Cramer-Rao lower bounds, ii) a lower SNR threshold, iii) a better capability of discriminating multicomponent signals.