A method for estimating a Doppler spread and a signal-to-noise ratio of a received signal includes: (a) calculating one or more functions of a carrier component of the received signal at a first time point relative to a pilot signal embedded in the received signal; (b) Calculating the one or more functions of the carrier component of the received signal at a second time point relative to the pilot signal; (c) repeating steps (a) and (b) over multiple time periods, each time period being substantially longer than the second time, and accumulating the one or more functions for the first time points and the second time points; and (d) Deriving the Doppler spread and the signal-to-noise ration based on the accumulated one or more functions calculated at the first and second time points. In one embodiment, the first time point is substantially closer to the pilot signal than the second time point. The first time point is one symbol interval from the pilot signal.