Blind Symbol Timing Estimation for Bandlimited Optical Intensity Channels

In a recent work carried out by the first author, a symbol timing estimator for bandlimited optical intensity links has been developed under the assumption that data symbols are known to the receiver in form of a pilot sequence. In the current paper, this investigation is complemented by a non-data-aided (blind) approach, which means that an arbitrary amount of payload information might be used for this purpose without reducing the spectral efficiency. In this context, an algorithm is developed and analyzed in terms of mean error value and jitter variance as the major figures of merit.