ITC/USA 2007 Conference Proceedings / The Forty-Third Annual International Telemetering Conference and Technical Exhibition / October 22-25, 2007 / Riviera Hotel & Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / The accuracy of channel estimation plays a crucial role in the demodulation of data symbols sent across an unknown wireless medium. In this work a new analytical expression for the channel estimation error of a multiple input multiple output (MIMO) system is obtained when the wireless medium is continuously changing in the temporal domain. Numerical examples are provided to illustrate our findings. Space-time (ST) coding using Continuous Phase Modulation (CPM) has spectral advantages relative to linear modulations. In spite of the spectral benefits, Space-Time Trellis Codes (STTC) using the CPM implementation of Minimum Shift Keying (MSK) scheme has inherent inphase and quadrature interference, when the received complex baseband signal is the input into the matchfilter to remove the shaped sinusoid pulses. In this paper a novel optimum transmitting and detecting structure for STTC-MSK is proposed. Treating the Alamouti scheme as an outer code, each STTC MSK waveform frame is immediately followed by the orthogonal conjugate waveform frame at the transmit side. At the receiver first orthogonal wave forming is applied, then a new time-variant yet simple trellis structure of the STTC-MSK signals is developed. This STTC-MSK detector is absolutely guaranteed to be I/Q interference-free and still keeps a smaller computation load compared with STTC-QPSK. Simulations are made over quasi-static AWGN fading channel. It is shown that our detector for ST-MSK has solved the I/Q interference problem and has around 2.8 dB gain compared with the Alamouti Scheme and 3.8 dB gain for bit error rate at 5 X 10^(-3) in a 2 by 1 Multiple Input Single Output system.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 25-28, 1999 / Riviera Hotel and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / The turbo code is a block code even though a convolutional encoder is used to construct codewords. Its performance depends on the code word length. Since the invention of the turbo code in 1993, most of the bit error rate (BER) evaluations have been performed using large block sizes, i.e., sizes greater than 1000, or even 10,000. However, for telemetry and command, a relatively short message (<500 bits) may be used. This paper investigates the turbo-coded BER performance for short packets. Fading channel is also considered. In addition, biased channel side information is adopted to improve the performance.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 26-29, 1998 / Town & Country Resort Hotel and Convention Center, San Diego, California / This paper describes techniques for error location analysis used in the design and testing of high-speed instrumentation data recording and communications applications. It focuses on the differences between common bit error rate testing and new error location analysis. Examples of techniques presented include separating bit and burst error components, studying probability of burst occurrences, looking at error free interval occurrence rates as well as auto-correlating error position. Each technique contributes to a better understanding of the underlying error phenomenon and enables higher-quality digital recording and communication. Specific applications in error correction coding emulation, magnetic media error mapping and systematic error interference are discussed.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 20-23, 2003 / Riviera Hotel and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / One of the charters of the Advanced Range Telemetry (ARTM) program was to develop more spectrally efficient waveforms while trying to maintain similar performance to the legacy waveform, Pulse Code Modulation/Frequency Modulation (PCM/FM). The first step toward this goal was the ARTM Tier I family of waveforms which include Feher patented, quadrature phase shift keying, -B version (FQSPKB) and shaped offset quadrature phase shift keying, Telemetry Group version (SOQPSK-TG). The final step was development of Tier II, an even more spectrally efficient waveform, multi-h Continuous Phase Modulation (CPM). This paper characterizes the performance of this waveform when applied in an airborne telemetry environment and, where appropriate, comparisons are made with existing Tier 0 and Tier I waveforms. The benefits, drawbacks, and trade-offs when applying this waveform in an airborne environment will also be discussed.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 23-26, 2000 / Town & Country Hotel and Conference Center, San Diego, California / Shock and vibration testing was performed on the Metrum-Datatape Inc. 32HE recorder to determine its viability as an airborne instrumentation recorder. A secondary goal of the testing was to characterize the recorder operational shock and vibration envelope. Both flight testing and laboratory environmental testing of the recorder was performed to make these determinations. This paper addresses the laboratory portion of the shock and vibration testing and addresses the test methodology and rationale, test set-up, results, challenges, and lessons learned.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 23-26, 2000 / Town & Country Hotel and Conference Center, San Diego, California / The Bit Error Rate (BER) performance of FQPSK modulated signals in the presence of the Co-Channel Interference (CCI) and Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN) is evaluated and improved. A Non- Linearly Amplified (NLA) FQPSK modulated signal with the data rate of 1Mb/s and carrier frequency of 70 MHz is interfered with a sinusoidal signal at different frequencies. As the relative distance of the center frequency of the Co-channel interference (CCI) changes, different BER are obtained. The effect of the CCI decreases as the CCI center frequency moves away from the center of the modulated signal. In order to improve the BER in the presence of the CCI, a hard limited filter is added at the receiver input. The hard limited filter has a different amplification factor for different signal strength. As a result, the amplification factor for the CCI, which is normally a weaker signal, is smaller than the actual signal. This means that the signal is amplified more than the interference and as a result the CCI is suppressed and the BER rate improves. The results of both simulations and measurements are obtained for different CCI center frequencies, before and after the improvements.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 23-26, 2000 / Town & Country Hotel and Conference Center, San Diego, California / When designing transmitters for quadrature modulation schemes, the designer always tries to achieve good balance and symmetry of the in-phase (I) and quadrature (Q) branches of the modulator in terms of amplitude, phase, and offsets. Perfect balance between modulators is ideal but rarely if ever achieved. The Advance Range Telemetry (ARTM) program has placed indirect specifications on the remnant carrier and sideband levels which are controlled by modulator imbalance. These specifications will govern the ARTM programs first generation of Feher’s patented quadrature phase shift keying, version B (FQPSK-B) [9] airborne telemetry transmitters. The ARTM Program has also adopted test procedures for quantifying these modulation imbalances. This paper looks at the effects of modulator imbalances on spectral occupancy and bit error probability of the airborne telemetry link. It also outlines how these imbalances influence the levels in one of the ARTM specifications. Recommendations are presented based on the measured data for higher bit rate telemetry systems.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 23-26, 2000 / Town & Country Hotel and Conference Center, San Diego, California / This paper describes a Multi-Function Telemetry Input Module (TIM). The TIM module includes a 30 Mbps PCM frame synchronizer, a time code translator/generator, a PCM simulator and a tunable bit synchronizer all on a single PCI card. The module uses a generic architecture including: high density Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), look-up table memory, dual port A/B data buffer memory and a full function PCI interface. The FPGA and the logic function of the card are downloadable via the PCI interface. This allows a single module to support many hardware functions in a telemetry front-end. The TIM is an integral part of a PC-based Advanced Telemetry Processing and Display System. This concept for hardware design ushers in a new generation of flexible downloadable telemetry products.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 25-28, 1999 / Riviera Hotel and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / The Space and Missile Systems Center at Vandenberg AFB has integrated ID-1 high bit rate helical scan digital recorders into the ground based and mobile telemetry receiving and processing facilities. The systems are used for recording higher bit rates than those available with the current IRIG standard longitudinal wideband and double density instrumentation magnetic tape recorder/reproducers. In addition to the 400 Mbps digital recorders, the systems consist of high-speed multiplexer/ demultiplexers and multi-channel bit synchronizers for recording numerous telemetry data links and sources on a single recorder. This paper describes the system configurations and compares recording capabilities with those of the previous generation instrumentation magnetic tape recorder/reproducers.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 25-28, 1999 / Riviera Hotel and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / This paper describes the design considerations used by Aydin Telemetry in the development of its high data rate Feher Patented Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (FQPSK) [1] frequency agile transmitter. We will address several key areas of interest to the Telemetry community, such as the use of commercially available VLSI parts to minimize parts count while maximizing reliability, adaptive filtering to accommodate a wide range of data rates, and user selectable features to achieve a universal transmitter design. User selectable features include differential encoder, 15 stage IRIG randomizer, and 1/2 rate convolutional FEC coding. This paper also addresses the spectral efficiency that can be achieved using a Class-C amplifier with FQPSK and the measured bit error rate (BER) performance versus Eb/No.