Fine resolution frequency estimation from three DFT samples: Case of windowed data

An efficient and low complexity frequency estimation method based on the discrete Fourier transform (DFT) samples is described. The suggested method can operate with an arbitrary window function in the absence or presence of zero-padding. The frequency estimation performance of the suggested method is shown to follow the Cramer-Rao bound closely without any error floor due to estimator bias, even at exceptionally high signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) values.