A novel approach to the gain estimation problem,using a multi-armed bandit formulation, is studied. The gain estimation problem deals with the problem of estimating the largest L2-gain that signal of bounded norm experiences when passing through a linear and time-invariant system. Under certain conditions, this new approach is guaranteed to surpass traditional System Identification methods in terms of accuracy.The bandit algorithms Upper Confidence Bound, Thompson Sampling and Weighted Thompson Sampling are implemented with the aim of designing the optimal input for maximizing the gain of an unknown system. The regret performance of each algorithm is studied using simulations on a test system. Upper Confidence Bound, with exploration parameter set to zero, performed the best among all tested values for this parameter. Weighted Thompson Sampling performed better than Thompson Sampling.

This dissertation explores the application of Silvester's space-time block code to the multi-index CPM called "ARTM CPM" in the IRIG 106 standard to solve the "two antenna problem"---the use of two transmit antennas to provide full spatial coverage on an airborne test article and the accompanying self interference due to different delays between the two transmit antennas and the ground-based receive antenna. A symbol-level encoding scheme is derived that allows the burst-based space-time block code to operate in a continuously streaming mode. The results show that the space-time block code can solve the two antenna problem with differential delays, but that the differential delays generate a substantial increase in the computational complexity of the detector. Complexity-reducing techniques are applied and analyzed. The results show that the complexity reductions required to produce a practically realizable detector render the bit error probability performance sensitive to the differential delay. Numerical results are presented to quantify the performance loss due to the differential delay. The use of space-time coded ARTM CPM to solve the two-antenna problem in aeronautical mobile telemetry requires estimates of the parameters that define the propagation environment. The maximum likelihood estimator problem is defined and used to motivate reduced-complexity estimators suitable for use in a real system. A modified gradient descent algorithm performs the search required to find the delay parameters. An "inner" phase lock loop operating with an "outer" frequency lock loop computes decision-directed estimates of the frequency offset. Computer simulations were used to assess the impact on bit error rate performance introduced by the estimators. The simulation results show the combined joint estimator for the delays, channel gains, and frequency offset imposes a 1.15 dB loss in performance. This loss is approximately the same as the 1.1 dB loss due to the complexity-reducing techniques used by the decoder/detector.