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At least 37 records · Page 2

Applying EVM to Satellite on Ground and In-Orbit Testing - Better Data in Less Time

Using Error Vector Magnitude (EVM) in satellite integration and test allows rapid verification of the Bit Error Rate (BER) performance of a satellite link and is particularly well suited to measurement of low bit rate satellite links where it can result in a major reduction in test time (about 3 weeks per satellite for the Geosynchronous Operational Environmental Satellite [GOES] satellites during ground test) and can provide diagnostic information. Empirical techniques developed to predict BER performance from EVM measurements and lessons learned about applying these techniques during GOES N, O, and P integration test and post launch testing, are discussed.

Peters, Robert↗

Spectral Re-Growth Reduction for CCSDS 8-D 8-PSK TCM

This report presents a study on the CCSDS recommended 8-dimensional 8 PSK Trellis Coded Modulation (TCM) scheme. The important steps of the CCSDS scheme include: conversion of serial data into parallel form, differential encoding, convolutional encoding, constellation mapping, and filtering the 8-PSK symbols using the square root raised cosine (SRRC) pulses. The last step, namely the filtering of the 8 PSK symbols using SRRC pulses, significantly affects the bandwidth of the signal. If a nonlinear power amplifier is used, the SRRC filtered signal creates spectral regrowth. The purpose of this report is to investigate a technique, called the smooth phase interpolated keying (SPIK), that can provide an alternative to SRRC filtering so that good spectral as well as power efficiencies can be obtained with the CCSDS encoder. The results of this study show that the CCSDS encoder does not affect the spectral shape of the SRRC filtered signal or the SPIK signal. When a nonlinear traveling wave tube amplifier (TWTA) is used, the spectral performance of the SRRC signal degrades significantly while the spectral performance of SPIK remains unaffected. The degrading effect of a nonlinear solid state power amplifier (SSPA) on SRRC is found to be less than that due to a nonlinear TWTA. However, in both cases, the spectral performance of the SRRC modulated signal is worse than that of the SPIK signal. The bit error rate (BER) performance of the SRRC signal in a linear amplifier environment is about 2.5 dB better than that of the SPIK signal when both the receivers use algorithms of similar complexity. In a nonlinear TWTA environment, the SRRC signal requires accurate phase tracking since the TWTA introduces additional phase distortion. This problem does not arise with SPIK signal due to its constant envelope property. When a nonlinear amplifier is used, the SRRC method loses nearly 1 dB in the bit error rate performance. The SPIK signal does not lose any performance. Thus the performance gap between SRRC and SPIK reduces. The BER performance of SPIK can be improved even further by using a more optimal receiver. A similar optimal receiver for SRRC is quite complex since the amplifier distorts the pulse shape. However, this requires further investigation and is not covered in this report.

Borah, Deva K.↗

A Very Efficient Transfer Function Bounding Technique on Bit Error Rate for Viterbi Decoded, Rate 1/N Convolutional Codes

For rate 1/N convolutional codes, a recursive algorithm for finding the transfer function bound on bit error rate (BER) at the output of a Viterbi decoder is described. This technique is very fast and requires very little storage since all the unnecessary operations are eliminated. Using this technique, we find and plot bounds on the BER performance of known codes of rate 1/2 with K 18, rate 1/3 with K 14. When more than one reported code with the same parameter is known, we select the code that minimizes the required signal to noise ratio for a desired bit error rate of 0.000001. This criterion of determining goodness of a code had previously been found to be more useful than the maximum free distance criterion and was used in the code search procedures of very short constraint length codes. This very efficient technique can also be used for searches of longer constraint length codes.

Lee, P. J.↗

Performance measurement results for a 220 Mbps QPPM optical communication receiver with an EG/G Slik APD

The performance of a 220 Mbps quaternary pulse position modulation (QPPM) optical communication receiver with a 'Slik' silicon avalanche photodiode (APD) and a wideband transimpedance preamplifier in a small hybrid circuit module was measured. The receiver performance had been poor due to the lack of a wideband and low noise transimpedance preamplifier. With the new APB preamplifier module, the receiver achieved a bit error rate (BER) of 10 exp -6 at an average received input optical signal power of 4.2 nW, which corresponds to an average of 80 received (incident) signal photons per information bit.

Davidson, Frederic M.↗

Cross-Talk in QPSK Communication Systems

This report investigates the effects of cross-talk on the Bit Error Rate (BER) performance of QPSK communication systems. There are four different sources that can cause cross-talk in QPSK systems, namely, a band-limited channel, asymmetry in filters, phase imbalance between the channels, and imperfect carrier tracking. This report emphasizes the last two problems (where either phase imbalance in the local VCOs or imperfect carrier tracking exists).

Bit Error Rate Cross Talk Bandlimitted Channel Asy↗

Further Results on Rate 1/N Convolutional Code Constructions with Minimum Required SNR Criterion

New good (K, 1/N) convolutional codes for 8 or = to K or = to 13 and 2 or = to N or = to 8 were found and tabulated which require minimum signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) for given desired bit error rates (BER) with Viterbi decoding. The transfer function bound was used for the BER evaluations. These low-rate codes are expected to have a number of applications, especially for systems having large bandwidth-bit time products such as deep space and spread spectrum communication systems.

Lee, P. J.↗

Further results on rate 1/N convolutional code constructions with minimum required SNR criterion

New good (K, 1/N) convolutional codes for 8 or = to K or = to 13 and 2 or = to N or = to 8 were found and tabulated which require minimum signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) for given desired bit error rates (BER) with Viterbi decoding. The transfer function bound was used for the BER evaluations. These low-rate codes are expected to have a number of applications, especially for systems having large bandwidth-bit time products such as deep space and spread spectrum communication systems.

Lee, P. J.↗

Coherent Optical Focal Plane Array Receiver for PPM Signals: Investigation and Applications

The performance of a coherent optical focal plane array receiver for PPM signals under atmospheric turbulence is investigated and applications of this system are addressed. The experimental demonstration of this project has already been explained in previous publications [1]. This article shows a more exhaustive analysis of the expressions needed to obtain the Bit Error Rate (BER) for the real system under study in the laboratory. Selected experimental results of this system are described and compared with theoretical BER expressions, and array combining gains are presented. Receiver sensitivity in terms of photons per bit (PPB) is examined; BER results are shown as a function of signal to noise ratios, (SNR), as well as a function of photons per symbol, and photons per bit.

shot noise limited↗

Optimizing Parameters for Deep-Space Optical Communication

A paper discusses the optimization of the parameters of a high-rate, deep-space optical communication link that utilizes pulse-position modulation (PPM) and an error-correcting code (ECC). The parameters in question include the PPM order (number of pulse time slots in one symbol period), the ECC rate, and the uncoded symbol error rate. In simple terms, the optimization problem is to choose the combination of these parameters that maximizes the throughput data rate at a given bit-error-rate (BER), subject to several constraints, including limits on the average and peak power and possibly a limit on the uncoded symbol error rate. This is a complex, multidimensional optimization problem, the solution of which involves computation of channel capacities for various combinations of the parameters. The paper presents extensive theoretical analyses and numerical predictions that elucidate the many facets of the optimization problem. It shows how a nearly optimum solution can be obtained by choosing the optimum PPM order for the desired number of bits per slot and concatenating the PPM mapping with an error-correction code so that the decoded bits satisfy some BER threshold.

Moison, Bruce↗

The impact of pulsed RFI on the coded BER performance of the nonlinear satellite communication channel

Communication links from low orbiting spacecraft to a central ground station, via satellite repeater, may be susceptible to significant performance degradation if high-level, pulsed radio frequency interference (RFI) must be contended with. The present paper examines the coded bit error rate (BER) performance of a communication system in which BPSK modulation is employed, pulsed CW or pulsed noise RFI is present, and the transponder contains a nonlinearity characterized by arbitrary AM/AM and AM/PM characteristics. A major result of this paper is an analytic method for determining soft decision statistics of the receiver demodulator output, in which pulsed RFI effects are accounted for. It is demonstrated that this result can be analytically applied to the approximate determination of the BER at the output of a Viterbi decoder, when convolutional coding is employed.

Weinberg, A.↗

Ka-Band, Multi-Gigabit-Per-Second Transceiver

A document discusses a multi-Gigabit-per-second, Ka-band transceiver with a software-defined modem (SDM) capable of digitally encoding/decoding data and compensating for linear and nonlinear distortions in the end-to-end system, including the traveling-wave tube amplifier (TWTA). This innovation can increase data rates of space-to-ground communication links, and has potential application to NASA s future spacebased Earth observation system. The SDM incorporates an extended version of the industry-standard DVB-S2, and LDPC rate 9/10 FEC codec. The SDM supports a suite of waveforms, including QPSK, 8-PSK, 16-APSK, 32- APSK, 64-APSK, and 128-QAM. The Ka-band and TWTA deliver an output power on the order of 200 W with efficiency greater than 60%, and a passband of at least 3 GHz. The modem and the TWTA together enable a data rate of 20 Gbps with a low bit error rate (BER). The payload data rates for spacecraft in NASA s integrated space communications network can be increased by an order of magnitude (>10 ) over current state-of-practice. This innovation enhances the data rate by using bandwidth-efficient modulation techniques, which transmit a higher number of bits per Hertz of bandwidth than the currently used quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) waveforms.

Simons, Rainee N.↗

A new coherent demodulation technique for land-mobile satellite communications

An advanced coherent demodulation technique is described for land mobile satellite (LMS) communications. The proposed technique features a combined narrow/wind band dual open loop carrier phase estimator, which is effectively able to compensate the fast carrier phase fluctuation by fading with sacrificing a phase slip rate. Also included is the realization of quick carrier and clock reacquisition after shadowing by taking open loop structure. Its bit error rate (BER) performance is superior to that of existing detection schemes, showing a BER of 1 x 10(exp -2) at 6.3 dB E sub b/N sub o over the Rician channel with 10 dB C/M and 200 Hz (1/16 modulation rate) fading pitch f sub d for QPSK. The proposed scheme consists of a fast response carrier recovery and a quick bit timing recovery with an interpolation. An experimental terminal model was developed to evaluate its performance at fading conditions. The results are quite satisfactory, giving prospects for future LMS applications.

Yoshida, Shousei↗

Pseudorandom noise for telemetry error rate measurement applications and limitations.

A pseudorandom noise (PRN) generator functional design has been developed which is superior to the commercially available instrument in usable bandwidth and in the closeness of fit to the gaussian probability distribution in the 'tails' of the curve. The principal disadvantage of PRN sources for bit error rate (BER) measurements is that the probability distribution is truncated in the tails. This truncation of the probability distribution results in a similar truncation of the BER curve - i.e., there is a minimum BER which can be measured, below which the only possible result is zero. The minimum nonzero BER actually computed with the PRN source developed was 0.00001 with a pseudorandom sequence of 131,071 bits. It is theoretically possible, with a longer sequence, to achieve a minimum BER of 0.000001 with the same design.

Hopkins, P. M.↗

Performance of the unique-word-reverse-modulation type demodulator for mobile satellite communications

This paper proposes a new type of coherent demodulator, the unique-word (UW)-reverse-modulation type demodulator, for burst signal controlled by voice operated transmitter (VOX) in mobile satellite communication channels. The demodulator has three individual circuits: a pre-detection signal combiner, a pre-detection UW detector, and a UW-reverse-modulation type demodulator. The pre-detection signal combiner combines signal sequences received by two antennas and improves bit energy-to-noise power density ratio (E(sub b)/N(sub 0)) 2.5 dB to yield 10(exp -3) average bit error rate (BER) when carrier power-to-multipath power ratio (CMR) is 15 dB. The pre-detection UW detector improves UW detection probability when the frequency offset is large. The UW-reverse-modulation type demodulator realizes a maximum pull-in frequency of 3.9 kHz, the pull-in time is 2.4 seconds and frequency error is less than 20 Hz. The performances of this demodulator are confirmed through computer simulations and its effect is clarified in real-time experiments at a bit rate of 16.8 kbps using a digital signal processor (DSP).

Dohi, Tomohiro↗

Testing of a Line Driver With Configurable Pre-Emphasis on Lossy Transmission Lines

Rare-event physics experiments such as the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) or the next Enriched Xenon Observatory (nEXO) experiment search for rare, low-energy events, detected by sensitive detectors immersed in a cryogenic noble liquid (e.g., liquid argon or xenon). Readout electronics used within such detectors must consume minimal power while operating reliably in cryogenic environments. Furthermore, in the case of nEXO, maximizing the radiopurity of the environment is vital to minimize background noise, thus placing strict limits on the volume of dielectric materials, leading to high-loss data cables spanning distances up to 12 m. Such cables cause high attenuation and intersymbol interference (ISI), resulting in a high bit-error rate (BER). These issues were addressed by developing an integrated line driver with configurable pre-emphasis in a 65-nm CMOS process. The pre-emphasis parameters can be programmed to minimize BER for specific cables and data rates under power constraints. Here, the driver was tested at both room and cryogenic temperatures. In both cases, the output BER was found to be strongly correlated with the pre-emphasis settings. Furthermore, analysis and simulation showed that adapting the pre-emphasis settings based on the incoming bit sequence can further improve performance with minimal changes to the current solution.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

Coherent optical array receiver experiment : design, implementation and BER performance of a multichannel coherent optical receiver for PPM signals under atmospheric turbulence

The performance of a coherent free-space optical communication system operating in the presence of turbulence is investigated. Maximum Likelihood Detection techniques are employed to optimally detect Pulse Position Modulated signals with a focal-plane detector array, and reconstruct the turbulence-degraded signals. The experimental demonstration of this project and results may be divided in three parts; two of which have already been explained in previous publications (1,2). This latest paper shows the final experimental results, including investigation of performance of the Coherent Optical Receiver Experiment (CORE) performed at the laboratory facilities at JPL. Bit Error Rate (BER) is presented for single and multichannel optical receivers, where quasi-shot noise limited performance is achieved, under simulated turbulence conditions using non-coherent post-detection processing techniques.

Hassibi, Babak↗

Bit error rate measurement for evaluation of a fiber optic link

Digital fiber-optic data-link terminal modules are being developed in a number of laboratories, and often the modules take the form of black boxes without convenient access to internal signals. This paper discusses types of measurements which can be made using only the digital terminals of the link. Bit-error-rate (BER) vs signal-power data can, of course, provide a means for proving overall link performance, but it can also be used to determine certain internal parameters of the receiver. The theoretical dependence of the BER-vs-light-signal-power curve shape on receiver input-noise equivalent power and comparator slicing level is discussed. BER-vs-light-signal-power measurements obtained with an experimental link are presented and interpreted with the aid of the theoretical curves. The effects of other problems, such as hum or oscillation, on the BER data are mentioned. Sensitivity of the system BER to bit rate is also discussed, with application to determining system operating limits. Since BER measurements are simple to make and can easily be automated, they may prove to be a useful means for either laboratory evaluation or production-line acceptance testing of sealed terminal modules.

Bergman, L. A.↗

On the passage of high-level pulsed radio frequency interference through a nonlinear satellite transponder

Attention is given to the uncoded bit error rate (BER) performance of a satellite communications system whose modulation scheme is binary PSK and whose transponder contains an arbitrary amplitude nonlinearity, all in the presence of high level pulsed radio frequency interference (RFI). A general approach is presented for direct BER evaluations, in contrast to other approaches which may employ SNR suppression factors. The computed results are based on arbitrarily specified RFI scenarios, in the presence of hard limiter, clipper, or blanker amplitude nonlinearities. Performance curves demonstrate the superiority of an appropriately chosen blanker when the RFI environment is most severe. The results obtained also pertain to the sensitivity of performance to the information bit rate, signal power variations, and the ratio of CW to noise content. The CW effects are found to be the most severe.

Weinberg, A.↗