Joint Parameter Estimation for the Two-Wave with Diffuse Power Fading Model

Wireless sensor networks deployed within metallic cavities are known to suffer from a very severe fading, even in strong line-of-sight propagation conditions. This behavior is well-captured by the Two-Wave with Diffuse Power (TWDP) fading distribution, which shows great fit to field measurements in such scenarios. In this paper, we address the joint estimation of the parameters K and Δ that characterize the TWDP fading model, based on the observation of the received signal envelope. We use a moment-based approach to derive closed-form expressions for the estimators of K and Δ, as well as closed-form expressions for their asymptotic variance. Results show that the estimation error is close to the Cramer-Rao lower bound for a wide range of values of the parameters K and Δ. The performance degradation due to a finite number of observations is also analyzed.