A digital coherent receiver suitable for land-mobile satellitecommunications

Describes an advanced coherent demodulation technique suitable for land-mobile satellite communications. The proposed technique features a combined narrow/wide band dual open loop (DOL) carrier phase estimator, which effectively enables the coherent receiver to track fast phase fluctuations caused by fading, without degradation in phase slip characteristics. Additionally, an open loop phase estimator has inherent quick recovery performance. Its bit error rate (BER) performance is shown to be superior to that for existing detection schemes, achieving a 10^-2 BER at 6.3 dB E_b/N₀ (0.9 dB greater than the theoretical E_b/N₀ condition for perfect carrier phase tracking) for QPSK over a Rician fading channel with the 10 dB Rician factor and the 1/16 baud rate fading pitch. The paper also describes a quick bit timing recovery scheme, with interpolation, featuring an open loop structure. Further, it presents an experimental digital modem developed through the use of digital signal processors