In accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure there is provided a method for carrier sensing. The method includes receiving, at a wireless receiver, an input signal, and generating, based on a sampling period, a plurality of data samples from the input signal. The method further includes periodically combining a first data sample from the plurality of data samples with a second data sample that is one or more sampling periods before the first data sample to generate a combined data sample. The method further includes generating an auto-correlated output for carrier sensing based on the combined data sample. The auto-correlated output is provided to generate an estimate of phase difference between the first sample and the second sample for the periodic combining.