An adaptive coding scheme with code combining for mobile radiosystems

The authors propose and study an adaptive error-control coding scheme for binary digital FM (BFM) mobile radio transmission. The scheme employs code combining through packet retransmissions. The number of transmissions of a packet is in proportion to the channel fading/noise levels, which is in contrast to time diversity techniques where a fixed number of repetitions of a data packet is performed even in the absence of channel errors. Furthermore, the receiver uses received signal envelopes as channel state information, which significantly improves the throughput and bit error rate (BER) performance. Performance of the proposed scheme is analyzed for frequency-flat Rayleigh fading channels with additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN), co-channel interference and random FM noise     

Digital audio broadcasting in the FM band based on continuous phase modulation

A method for broadcasting digital audio signals simultaneously with existing analog frequency modulation radio (88-108 MHz) in adjacent channels is presented. The digital transmission is based on continuous phase modulation (CPM) and a proper reduced-state sequence estimator. With the proposed method, the power level and the symbol rate of the transmitter signal is determined in a manner that the interference the CPM signal poses for the analog FM signal in adjacent channels remains below a level according to the radio frequency emission mask defined by international rules. Due to the multipath propagation of the transmitted signal, the transmission behavior of the radio channel is determined by high dispersion up to 85 /spl mu/s. With the selected bit rate, the receiver has to cope with a channel memory of up to 17 bits. Since Viterbi detection is not feasible due to the number of channel states, detection is performed by a reduced-state sequence estimator that is able to eliminate the complete channel interference by decision feedback. Simulation results show that the detector almost achieves the detection quality of the optimum receiver. CPM achieves data rates of up to 200 kb/s inside a 200 kHz FM channel, which is sufficient for transmission of digital compressed audio signals at compact disc quality. The encouraging results of field tests will be published in another paper.     

Design and Test of a Spectrally Efficient Land Mobile Communications System Using LPC Speech

A communication system was built and tested to operate in the land mobile VHF band (150-174 MHz) at a channel separation of only 6 kHz. The audio source was digitally encoded at 2.4 kbits/s using linear predictive coding (LPC). The speech data stream was transmitted by frequency shift keying (FSK) which allowed the use of class-C transmitters and discriminator detection in the receiver. Baseband filtering of the NRZ data resulted in a narrow transmitter spectrum. The receiver had a 3 dB bandwidth of 2.4 kHz which allowed data transmission with minimal intersymbol interference and frequency offset degradation. A 58 percent eye opening was found. Bit error rate (BER) performance was measured with simulated Rayleigh fading at typical 150 MHz rates. Additional tests included capture, ignition noise susceptibility, adjacent channel protection, degradation from frequency offset, and bit error effects upon speech quality. A field test was conducted to compare the speech quality of the digital radio to that of a conventional 5 kHz deviation FM mobile radio.     

Design and test of a spectrally efficient land mobile communications system using LPC speech

A communication system was built and tested to operate in the land mobile VHF band (150-174 MHz) at a channel separation of only 6 kHz. The audio source was digitally encoded at 2.4 kbits/s using linear predictive coding (LPC). The speech data stream was transmitted by frequency shift keying (FSK) which allowed the use of class-C transmitters and discriminator detection in the receiver. Baseband filtering of the NRZ data resulted in a narrow transmitter spectrum. The receiver had a 3 dB bandwidth of 2.4 kHz which allowed data transmission with minimal intersymbol interference and frequency offset degradation. A 58 percent eye opening was found. Bit error rate (BER) performance was measured with simulated Rayleigh fading at typical 150 MHz rates. Additional tests included capture, ignition noise susceptibility, adjacent channel protection, degradation from frequency offset, and bit error effects upon speech quality. A field test was conducted to compare the speech quality of the digital radio to that of a conventional 5 kHz deviation FM mobile radio.     

Evaluation of 16 kbit/s digital voice transmission for mobile radio

In this paper 16 kbit/s digital voice transmission with conventional channel spacing of 25 kHz, employing a 16 kbit/s adaptive delta modulation (ADM) coder-decoder (CODEC) is evaluated. The main characteristics of narrow-band digital FM modulation schemes, such as tamed FM, Gaussian filtered minimum shift keying (GMSK), four-level FM and phase locked loop-quaternary phase shift keying (PLL-QPSK), are compared by laboratory tests. Digitized voice quality in a digital channel incorporating a 16 kbit/s ADM CODEC and GMSK coherent detection was compared with voice quality of a conventional analog FM channel. Bit error ratio (BER) performance is shown to depend primarily on demodulation schemes. Digital voice quality is inferior to that of analog voice with an opinion score difference of about 0.5 in fading environments. This kind of digital voice transmission will be applicable for those systems that require high security at an expense of speech quality.     

Compatibility of FM hybrid in-band on-channel (IBOC) system fordigital audio broadcasting

A robust in-band on-channel (IBOC) digital audio broadcast (DAB) system for improved performance over existing FM broadcasting is under development by Westinghouse for USA Digital Radio. Both the analog FM and the DAB signals are transmitted simultaneously in the FM hybrid IBOC system. Broadcasters can simultaneously transmit both analog and digital signals within the allocated channel mask, allowing full compatibility with existing analog receivers. It is shown here that the solution is tolerant of interference from adjacent channels, or interference from the co-channel analog transmission, even in a multiple station, strong-signal urban market. Although the primary focus of this paper is to discuss the compatibility issues between the existing FM and the DAB signals, the paper also briefly describes spectral occupancy, power ratios, modulation formats, and coding, as well as the introduction of frequency and time diversity     

Simultaneous broadcasting of analog FM and digital audio signals bymeans of adaptive precanceling techniques

A method for broadcasting digital audio simultaneously with existing analog frequency modulation (FM) radio is presented. The method is based on precomputing the response of the host analog FM signal at the digital receiver and precanceling it at the transmitter. As a result, the digital transmission is free from interference from analog FM. We select the rate and power level of the digital transmission in a manner that the interference the digital data incur on the analog FM signal remains at acceptably low levels. The digital transmission is based on adaptive orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) (adaptive multicarrier). The frequencies and number of carriers of the digital multicarrier modem are judiciously selected in a time-varying fashion so as to cause a negligible distortion in a standard receiver for analog FM. Simulations based on conservative nonoptimized signal design indicate that data rates up to about 130 kb/s inside the 200-kHz FM channel are achievable for acoustic test signals. We present a number of numerical examples where the average digital data use up to 50% of the 200-kHz power spectrum with digital signal power levels 25-35 dB below the analog signal. Due to the resulting variable-rate digital transmission, a control channel is required. A method of precanceling with multiple orthogonal direct-sequence spread-spectrum schemes is also presented     

Performance of an in-band adjacent-channel DAB system forfrequency-selective Rayleigh and Ricean slow fading channels underanalog FM interference

In support of the 1995-1997 DAB (digital audio broadcasting) testing conducted by the NRSC (National Radio Systems Committee), an IBAC (in-band adjacent-channel) scheme was developed by AT&T. Although not for use in the United States, bit error rate (BER) system performance under both fading environments and the existing analog FM broadcasting is important to quantify. This is because there may still exist other countries and environments where an IBAC approach to DAB is feasible and economical. Given this situation, an IBAC simulation model has been developed to allow for a performance analysis study within the mobile reception environment, which is dominated by Rayleigh and Ricean fading statistics. This paper presents the simulation results for coherent quadrature phase-shift-keying (QPSK) with nonlinear equalization for both frequency-selective Rayleigh and Ricean slow fading channel environments, along with co-channel, 1st-adjacent and 2nd-adjacent analog FM interference. The results indicate that for a country where spectrum availability dictates an IBAC solution, this approach may perform well under various fading and interference environments     

Bit-error rate of TDMA links under cochannel interference inoverlaid cellular networks

This paper presents a series of numerical experiments conducted to investigate the error performance of a simulated digital time-division multiple-access (TDMA) radio link between a portable handset and the base station serving it, subject to interference coming from other portable handsets. The experiments take radio channel impairments such as fading, shadowing, and distance loss into account. Analytical expressions for the bit-error probability in uncoded digital radio transmission bursts under interference from nearby analog FM or digital minimum-shift keying (MSK) transmitters are reviewed. Numerical methods are used to extend analytical estimates of symbol error probability of a link with a single interferer, without channel impairments, to the case where the interference is due to a random distribution of transmitters whose signals are subject to fading, shadowing, and distance power loss. Specifically, three links, each based on one of three different modulation methods, MSK, quadrature phase-shift keying (QPSK) (proposed in the North American Digital Cellular Standard IS-54), and Gaussian MSK (GMSK) [used in the Global Standard for Mobile communications (GSM)] are simulated, and the bit-error rate (BER) results reported. The BER results generated thus indicate the sensitivity of the digital radio link to the user density for a given radio frequency (RF) bandwidth and, where applicable, to fading depth and postmodulation intersymbol interference (ISI) removal method. Possible extensions and applications of the simulation model to the problem of resource sharing between coexisting networks are suggested     

Postcanceling techniques for simultaneous broadcasting of analog FM and digital data

We consider simultaneous broadcasting of low-power digital data and analog FM and present reliable receivers for the digital data. Due to the relatively low power level of the digital data and the interference suppression capability of analog FM, standard analog FM receivers can reliably recover the analog FM audio signal. To recover the digital data, an extended Kalman filter front end is developed that exploits the capture capability of analog FM to reconstruct and postcancel the analog FM component from the received composite signal. Simulations are conducted with artificial analog FM signals, suggesting that postcanceling schemes can provide higher data rates than their precanceling counterparts, at a lower transmission delay penalty but higher digital receiver complexity. For analog FM to digital signal power level ratios in the range of 30-50 dB, the postcanceler digital signal recovery appears fairly robust, providing digital signal-to-noise ratios of 2-7.5 dB. The corresponding uncoded bit error rates strongly depend on the power level difference between the host analog FM and the digital data signal. In particular, at 260 kb/s and E/sub b//N/sub o/=10 dB they range between 1% to about 15%, and can be reduced to acceptable levels using standard channel coding techniques.     

基于误码率的软件无线电射频干扰效应分析

针对通信系统工作过程中受到外界电磁干扰而无法通信的问题,研究了基于软件无线电的电磁干扰效应及误码特征。通过分析典型软件无线电电磁信号传输特性及其信息链路电磁干扰耦合路径,设计了软件无线电通信干扰实验系统。该系统利用Simulink软件观测、记录通信信号眼图、星座图信息等受扰特征,并通过分析接收信号的误码率,给出了不同干扰信号对通信系统的影响规律：当同频干扰功率达到-40 dBm时通信开始出现误码,干扰功率每增加5 dB,误码率增加一个量级,干扰功率增加到-18 dBm时,误码率达到阈值0.25;邻频干扰误码率随干扰功率变化趋势与同频干扰一致,但出现误码的最小干扰功率更大;带外强干扰信号也会影响通信系统可靠性,在相同误码率情况下,需要更大的干扰信号功率且大小与信号频偏成正比。     

Limiter discriminator-detected GMSK with FM and GMSK interferencein a land mobile channel

This paper addresses Gaussian minimum-shift keyed (GMSK) receiver performance analysis for limiter discriminator detection with cochannel interference resulting from a combined cellular voice and packet radio network. A specific example is cellular digital packet data (CDPD), which shares spectrum with cellular voice users; thus, the CDPD receiver will see both narrow-band frequency modulation (NBFM) voice and GMSK data interference. Previous studies investigated the performance of a GMSK receiver with a single GMSK interferer and multipath delay. In this paper, we extend earlier work to multiple Rayleigh fading (Doppler spread) interferers having NBFM (f_dm=12 kHz) analog modulation and/or GMSK modulation. Probability of bit-error expressions are derived for the frequency modulation (FM) and GMSK interferer cases assuming medium-to-high signal-to-noise ratio regions. For scenarios of from one to six NBFM interferers, having the same total power, a corresponding Gaussian approximation is within 1.5 dB. Simulation results are also presented for various combinations of FM and GMSK interference. FM interference is only slightly worse than GMSK interference. Delay spread representing an urban scenario resulted in only a slight increase in the error floor     

An error protected 16 kbit/s voice transmission for land mobileradio channel

Robust speech coding and an efficient error correction coding is indispensable for toll-quality voice transmission in mobile radio because of degradation due to multipath fading. A decision procedure for the bit-selective forward-error-correction (BS-FEC) scheme is proposed as a promising solution to this problem, and backward-type prediction speech coding is shown to be more robust against transmission errors than forward-type prediction. Combinations of BS-FEC (channel coding) and backward-type prediction speech coding are designed, and improvements in the SNRs of transmitted voice signals are examined. Simulation results show that BS-FEC can provide good speech quality even at a bit error rate (BER) of 10^-2 in Rayleigh fading environments, at the cost of a slight degradation in the SNR (signal-to-noise ratio) at low BERs     

TETRA radio performance evaluated via the software package TETRASIM

TETRA (TErrestrial Trunked RAdio) is a digital mobile radio standard for voice and data transmission. It aims at satisfying the growing request of applications and facilities coming from professional users and emergency services. The system has been standardized by ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute) and is provided with an European harmonized frequency band. The first TETRA networks appeared on the market in 1997. This paper reports TETRA radio performance evaluated via a simulation software package, named TETRASIM, entirely developed at CSELT according to TETRA specifications. The simulation results have been obtained for some of the traffic and control channels specified by the standard, in terms of BER (Bit Error Rate) and MER (Message Erasure Rate). As far as the simulated receiver scheme is concerned, the characteristics of the equivalent low-pass filters and the adopted synchronization technique are reported. The simulated demodulator uses a differential detection scheme with soft decision outputs in the case of coded channels. Performance analyses and results comparison are provided by taking into account the effects of signal-to-noise ratio, co-channel interference, adjacent channel interference, propagation models defined in the standard and mobile unit speed. The simulation results reported in this work have been included in the ETR (ETSI Technical Report) “TETRA Designers’ Guide Part 2: Radio and Traffic Performance”. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

A Digital Receiver Architecture for Bluetooth in 0.25- μm CMOS Technology and Beyond

A digital receiver architecture for short-range communications systems like Bluetooth is presented. The architecture is tailored to a highly integrated Bluetooth single-chip integrated circuit (IC) and can easily be adapted to other communications systems using a Gaussian frequency-shift keying (GFSK ) modulation scheme. The single-chip IC integrates the complete digital baseband and radio frequency (RF) functionality on a single die and is realized in a 0.25-mum complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technology targeted for cost efficiency. The superior performance of this digital receiver architecture compared to the state-of-the-art short-range communications receivers is shown. Simulation and measurement results are presented showing a receiver sensitivity of 87 dBm and excellent co-channel and adjacent channel interference performance.     

TETRA radio performance evaluated via the software package TETRASIM

TETRA (TErrestrial Trunked RAdio) is a digital mobile radio standard for voice and data transmission. It aims at satisfying the growing request of applications and facilities coming from professional users and emergency services. The system has been standardized by ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute) and is provided with an European harmonized frequency band. The first TETRA networks appeared on the market in 1997. This paper reports TETRA radio performance evaluated via a simulation software package, named TETRASIM, entirely developed at CSELT according to TETRA specifications. The simulation results have been obtained for some of the traffic and control channels specified by the standard, in terms of BER (Bit Error Rate) and MER (Message Erasure Rate). As far as the simulated receiver scheme is concerned, the characteristics of the equivalent low-pass filters and the adopted synchronization technique are reported. The simulated demodulator uses a differential detection scheme with soft decision outputs in the case of coded channels. Performance analyses and results comparison are provided by taking into account the effects of signal-to-noise ratio, co-channel interference, adjacent channel interference, propagation models defined in the standard and mobile unit speed. The simulation results reported in this work have been included in the ETR (ETSI Technical Report) “TETRA Designers’ Guide Part 2: Radio and Traffic Performance”. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

EIA/NRSC DAR systems subjective tests. II. Transmission impairments

For pt.I see ibid., vol.43, no.3, p.261-7 (1997). This paper describes the methods, results and conclusions of a series of subjective tests which were performed at the Communications Research Centre, Ottawa, Canada, to assess the audio quality of digital audio radio (DAR) systems in the presence of transmission errors. Testing has been performed in a laboratory environment on the hardware implementation of nine DAR systems. One of the systems operated in the AM broadcast band, five in the FM broadcast band, two in the L-band and one in the S-band. Testing was done in the presence of transmission errors generated by additive white gaussian noise, co-channel interference and five different multipath mobile channels. In addition, one system was tested with an interfering signal in the lower first adjacent DAR channel. The test results are presented and discussed, for each type of transmission impairments, in terms of (a) the E_b/N₀ ratios (D/U ratios for co-channel and adjacent channel interference) at the threshold of audibility (TOA) of transmission errors and at the point where transmission errors are so important that the audio quality is unacceptable (point of failure or POF) and (b) the failure margin which is a measure of how quickly DAR systems fail when the received signal power is reduced. A new parameter, labeled C_SP/N₀, is proposed to quantify the power efficiency of the overall DAR systems (i.e. source coding plus channel coding and modulation subsystems). The spectral efficiency of DAR systems is also presented and discussed     

Precoded Modulo-Precanceling Systems for Simulcasting Analog FM and Digital Data

We present techniques for simulcasting low-power digital data and analog FM over fading channels. Our methods have strong connections to what are referred to as dirty paper coding techniques in that a low-power digital data signal is modulo-added to the host analog FM signal. Due to the low power levels of the digital data and the suppression capability of analog FM, a standard analog FM receiver can be used to reliably recover the analog audio signal. We develop digital receivers that work reliably over fading channels given imperfect channel state information. Spreadresponse precoding is exploited to not only provide rate-1 temporal diversity benefits, but also to simplify the design of the modulo-precanceler and the receiver. Our theoretical and simulation-based performance analysis of the digital receivers and our MSE-based analog FM distortion analysis suggest that precoded modulo-precanceling schemes provide substantially higher data rates than existing precanceling strategies at the cost of transmission delay and transmitter and receiver complexity. The systems we present are also readily compatible with conventional channel coding techniques as well as with analog FM postcancelers, which can improve the digital receiver bit-error-rate performance at the expense of receiver complexity.     

Performance evaluation of an adaptive GSM receiver with frequency-selective fading and adjacent- and co-channel interference

This study represents the sequel and conclusion of a previous one already published in this Journal a few issues ago.¹ In that article, we tackled the problem of evaluating theoretically the performance of an adaptive MLSE receiver for MSK signals on a frequency-selective stationary radio propagation channel, and we validated the theoretical findings (in the form of upper and lower bounds to the BER of the receiver) by means of computer simulations. In the present paper, we report on the performance of the very same scheme of channel-estimator-plus-Viterbi-equalizer receiver for mobile communications in a more realistic operating environment. In particular, we completely encompass here the groupe spécial mobile (GSM) transmission format, based on the Gaussian minimum shift keying (GMSK) modulation scheme and on narrowband time-division multiple access (TDMA) transmission. Also, we remove the assumption of a time-invariant propagation channel, assuming the recommended standard GSM channels as benchmark transmission conditions. Finally, with the aid of extensive computer simulations, we analyse the sensitivity of the MLSE receiver to unwanted co-channel and adjacent-channel interference coming from other users of the mobile cellular GSM system.     

Periodic switching diversity effect on co-channel interference performance of a digital FM land mobile radio

The effect of periodic switching diversity on the bit error rate (BER) performance of a binary frequency-shift keying (FSK) system in the presence of co-channel interference is described. The distribution of the signal-to-interference energy ratio per bit presented to the FM detector is found and the diversity effect on the BER performance in a Rayleigh fading environment is analyzed. The diversity effect on the BER performance in a Manchester-coded FSK system with limiter-discriminator detection is verified by laboratory simulation tests using a Rayleigh fading simulator.