Engineering topics

Miller, R. L.

Publications and source records attributed to Miller, R. L..

At least 37 records · Page 2

NASA NTRS1986

Motions in the interiors and atmospheres of Jupiter and Saturn. II - Barotropic instabilities and normal modes of an adiabatic planet

A rotating and adiabatic inviscid fluid planet possesses low frequency motions that are barotropic, quasi-geostrophic and quasi-columnar. The limiting curvature at which flow becomes unstable upon projection onto the planetary surface is negative, with an amplitude that is 3-4 times that for thin atmospheres, in planets in which density linearly decreases to zero at the surface. This result is shown to hold for all quasi-columnar perturbations. Both the phase speed of the normal mode oscillations and the barotropic stability criterion have features in common with Saturn and Jupiter oscillations.

Ingersoll, A. P.↗

NASA NTRS1984

Virtual-Center Antenna-Arraying System

Separate signals averaged to produce reference frequency and phase. System develops reference carrier from separate received signals. Phase of signal at each receiver determined by comparison with reference phase. Useful in applications requiring accurate phase estimates: reception of weak telemetry signals, transmitter or reflector locating, nondestructive testing of structures, or geophysical exploration.

Deutsch, L. J.↗

NASA NTRS1983

Virtual center arraying

(Previously announced in STAR as N82-11287)

Deutsch, L. J.↗

NASA NTRS1982

Viterbi decoder node synchronization losses in the Reed-Solomon/Veterbi concatenated channel

The Viterbi decoders currently used by the Deep Space Network (DSN) employ an algorithm for maintaining node synchronization that significantly degrades at bit signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) of below 2.0 dB. In a recent report by the authors, it was shown that the telemetry receiving system, which uses a convolutionally encoded downlink, will suffer losses of 0.85 dB and 1.25 dB respectively at Voyager 2 Uranus and Neptune encounters. This report extends the results of that study to a concatenated (255,223) Reed-Solomon/(7, 1/2) convolutionally coded channel, by developing a new radio loss model for the concatenated channel. It is shown here that losses due to improper node synchronization of 0.57 dB at Uranus and 1.0 dB at Neptune can be expected if concatenated coding is used along with an array of one 64-meter and three 34-meter antennas.

Deutsch, L. J.↗

NASA NTRS1982

The effects of Viterbi decoder node synchronization losses on the telemetry receiving system

The Viterbi decoders currently used by the Deep space Network (DSN) use an algorithm for maintaining node synchronization that breaks down at bit signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) of about 2.0 dB. It is shown that this can become an important consideration when the effects of noisy carrier referencing are combined with the lower SNRs that are expected at Voyager 2 Uranus and Neptune encounters. Depending on the available carrier power, node synchronization losses of between 0.85 and 1.25 dB can be expected in addition to the radio loss.

Deutsch, L. J.↗

NASA NTRS1982

Sideband-aided receiver arraying

Efforts to increase the amount of data that can be received from outer planet missions by coherently combining signals from ground antennas in such a way as to increase the total effective aperture of the receiving system are discussed. As these signals become weaker, the baseband arraying technique in current use degrades somewhat due to carrier jitter. One solution to this problem is Sideband-Aided Receiver Arraying (SARA). In SARA, sidebands demodulated to baseband in a master receiver at the largest antenna are used to allow slave receivers in the other antennas to track the sideband power in the signal rather than the carrier power. The already existing receivers can be used in the slaves to track and demodulate the signals in either a residual carrier or a suppressed carrier environment. The resultant baseband signals from all the antennas can then be combined using existing baseband combining equiment. Computer simulations of SARA show increases in throughput (measured in data bits per second) over baseband-only combining 17 percent at Voyager 2 Uranum encounter and 31 percent at Neptune for a four-element antenna array and (7, 1/2) convolutional coding.

Butman, S. A.↗

NASA NTRS1981

Conceptual design for a universal Reed-Solomon decoder

An algorithm which enables one Reed-Solomon decoder to process other Reed-Solomon encoded data from a different code is presented. The sole requirement is that both codes have the same length, the same rate, and the same field of coefficients. It is pointed out that only very simple pre- and post-processing hardware is needed to resolve an encoder/decoder incompatibility and that no encoder modification is needed.

Miller, R. L.↗

NASA NTRS1981

Virtual center arraying

Methods to increase the amount of data that can be received from outer planet missions are described with emphasis on antenna arraying systems designed to increase the total effective aperture of the receiving system. One such method is virtual center arraying (VCA). In VCA, a combined carrier reference is derived at a point that is, conceptually, the geometric center of the array. This point need not coincide with any of the actual antennas of the array. A noise analysis of the VCA system is given along with formulas for the phase jitter as a function of loop bandwidths and the amount of loop damping. If the ratio of the loop bandwidths of the center loop to the vertex loops is greater than 100, then the jitter is very nearly equal to that expected for ideal combined carrier referencing.

Deutsch, L. J.↗

NASA NTRS1981

On the error statistics of Viterbi decoding and the performance of concatenated codes

Computer simulation results are presented on the performance of convolutional codes of constraint lengths 7 and 10 concatenated with the (255, 223) Reed-Solomon code (a proposed NASA standard). These results indicate that as much as 0.8 dB can be gained by concatenating this Reed-Solomon code with a (10, 1/3) convolutional code, instead of the (7, 1/2) code currently used by the DSN. A mathematical model of Viterbi decoder burst-error statistics is developed and is validated through additional computer simulations.

Miller, R. L.↗

NASA NTRS1981

Burst statistics of Viterbi decoding

A mathematical model of Viterbi decoder burst error performance is presented. This model allows for computer generation of Viterbi-like error sequences quickly and inexpensively for applications where large amounts of data are required. The model is corroborated through comparisons with actual software decoder simulations.

Deutsch, L. J.↗

NASA NTRS1981

A quick-look decoder with isolated error correction and node synchronization

It is noted that in a low-noise environment, a simple inversion circuit can be used for quick-look decoding of a convolutional code. An improvement in the bit error performance of the raw inversion circuit is effected by a simple pattern-recognition technique operating on the syndrome stream, which is also used to acquire node sync.

Greenhall, C. A.↗

NASA NTRS1981

Performance of concatenated codes for deep space missions

Butman, S. A.↗

NASA NTRS1981

New results on antenna arraying, part 1

Baseband combining with and without combined carrier referencing for antenna arrays are compared under two scenarios for the Voyager 2 Uranus encounter. The combined carrier reference scheme is estimated to outperform the baseband only scheme by less than 0.3 dB E (sub b)/N (sub 0) at a bit error probability of 0.005. These results were attained both with mathematical modeling and software Viterbi decoder simulations.

Deutsch, L. J.↗

NASA NTRS1981

A decoding failure test for the transform decoder of Reed-Solomon code

Using a finite field transform, a transform decoding algorithm is able to correct erasures as well as errors of any (n,k,d) Reed-Solomon code over the finite field GF(q). A pitfall of transform decoding and how to avoid it are discussed. A simple test is given so that the decoder fails to decode instead of introducing additional errors, whenever the received word contains too many errors and erasures.

Miller, R. L.↗

NASA NTRS1981

Fast transforms for decoding Reed-Solomon codes

In the paper it is shown that the Chinese remainder theorem when coupled with a modification of Winograd's method can be used to compute Fourier-like transforms over GF (s super m), where m = 2, 3, . . . , 8. These new transform techniques are to decode Reed-Solomon codes of block length 2 super m -1. The results are shown to be more efficient than the more conventional method.

Reed, I. S.↗

NASA NTRS1980

Efficient program for decoding the /255, 223/ Reed-Solomon code over GF/2 to the 8th/ with both errors and erasures, using transform decoding

The paper deals with a method developed for decoding a (255, 223) Reed-Solomon code over GF(2 to the 8th) with both errors and erasures. The matrix of decoding times for correcting errors and erasures of the code using a simplified decoder is presented. It is shown that the algorithm proposed is faster by a factor of from three to seven.

Miller, R. L.↗

NASA NTRS1980

Synchronization of Reed-Solomon codes

The synchronization capabilities of Reed-Solomon codes when an appropriate coset of the code is used instead of the code itself are examined. In this case an E-error correcting Reed-Solomon code is transformed into a code capable of determining that there are m symbols out of sync, if e symbol errors occurred, whenever m + e E. In the event that m = 0, i.e., the word is in sync, then decoder will correct any pattern of E - 1 on fewer symbol errors.

Miller, R. L.↗

NASA NTRS1979

Simplified algorithm for correcting both errors and erasures of Reed-Solomon codes

Using a finite-field transform, a simplified algorithm for decoding Reed-Solomon codes is developed to correct erasures as well as errors over the finite-field GF(q to the m power), where q is a prime and m is an integer. If the finite-field transform is a fast transform, this decoder can be faster and simpler than a decoder that uses more conventional methods.

Reed, I. S.↗