Carrier Tracking by Smoothing Filter Improves Symbol SNR

The potential benefit of using a smoothing filter to estimate a carrier phase over use of phase-locked loops (PLL) is determined. Numerical results are presented for the performance of three possible configurations of an all-digital coherent demodulation receiver. These are residual carrier PLL, sideband-aided residual carrier PLL, and finally sideband aided with Kalman smoother. The average symbol SNR after losses due to carrier phase estimation is computed for different total power SNRs, symbol rates, and symbol SNRs. It is found that smoothing is most beneficial for low symbol SNRs and low symbol rates. Smoothing gains up to 0.7 dB over sideband-aided residual carrier PLL, and the combined benefit of smoothing and sideband aiding relative to residual carrier loop is often in excess of 1 dB.     

Noise analysis of a digital tanlock loop

The noise performance analysis of a nonuniform digital phase-locked loop (DPLL), called the digital tanlock loop (DTL), is investigated by both analytic and computer-simulation methods. The results are presented in terms of phase error probability mass function and mean time to skip cycle versus input signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). These results are compared to the ones obtained with the conventional sinusoidal DPLL loop (DPLL). It is found that, for low-to-moderate input SNR, the DTL has only a slight improvement over the DPLL. The DTL, however, has larger linear characteristics than the conventional DPLL, which makes it attractive for applications that require an increased tracking range or as a first stage in carrier tracking systems based on optimum estimation procedures such as a Kalman smoother     

Analysis of an all-digital data-transition tracking loop

An all-digital implementation of the data-transition tracking loop (DTTL) is proposed and analyzed. The input waveform is assumed to be nonreturn-to-zero (NRZ)-coded binary signals. The mathematical analysis of the loop is reduced to the study of a Markov chain which allows the derivation of expressions for the mean square phase error, steady-state probabilities, transient behavior (time to acquire and time to bit slippage), and bit error rate (BER). Theoretical results have been validated using a computer simulation of the loop. The all-digital implementation can take full advantage of advanced technology in memory and processing speeds     

Improved Carrier Tracking by Smoothing Estimators

Smoothing as a way to improve the carrier phase estimation is proposed and analyzed. The performance of first-and second-order Kalman optimum smoothers are investigated. This perfomance is evaluated in terms of steady-state covariance error computation, dynamic tracking, and noise response. It is shown that with practical amounts of memory, a second-order smoother can have a position error due to an acceleration or jerk step input less than any prescribed maximum. As an example of importance to the NASA deep space network (DSN), a second-order smoother can be used to track the Voyager spacecraft at Uranus and Neptune encounters with significantly better performance than a second-order phaselocked loop.