International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 23-26, 2000 / Town & Country Hotel and Conference Center, San Diego, California / The interoperability of Feher-patented Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (FQPSK) systems with future and legacy data links is discussed in this paper. In particular, the benefits of “forward” interoperability with 3G (3rd Generation) wireless systems such as WCDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access) up to 40 Mchips/sec are highlighted. Other proposals of forward interoperability with future data links include an enhanced, ultra-bandwidth efficient FQPSK and 16-state FQAM (Feher’s Quadrature Amplitude Modulation) architectures. In addition, since FQPSK based systems have been proven in “dual use” systems and extensively tested and evaluated by the Department of Defense (DoD) and NASA, the analysis of “backward” interoperability with legacy data links such as GSM is also included in this paper.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 25-28, 1999 / Riviera Hotel and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / Blind adaptive equalization with application for Non-Linearly Amplified (NLA) quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) systems in multipath selective fading channels is presented. With an offset sampling strategy in the receiver, the proposed blind equalization using Constant Modulus Algorithm (CMA) exhibits a fast convergent speed for a family of quadrature modulated systems in NLA and multipath fading channels. Feher’s patented Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (FQPSK) and Feher’s Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (FQAM) which correspond respectively to 4-state and 16-state QAM are used due to their higher Radio Frequency (RF) power and spectral efficiency in NLA channel. It has been shown that blind adaptive equalization can significantly open the eye signals in multipath frequency selective fading channels.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 22-25, 2001 / Riviera Hotel and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / A non-feedback adaptive equalizer based on Feher Equalizer (FE) is presented and its performance is evaluated. By artificially adding notch/notches to the corrupted spectrum resulted from selectively faded LEO environments, an artificial symmetry is created and as a result the BER/BLER is improved. The location and the depth of artificial additive notches are based on the shape of the spectrum of the corrupted signal. By measuring the power in narrow bands around certain frequencies the existence of notches around those frequencies are predicted. Based on this information notches with proper depths are added to the main spectrum which results in more symmetry in the spectrum. The selection process of artificial notch/notches are based on the shape of the signal spectrum, which means that this equalizer unlike most conventional equalizer does not need any feedback. The nonfeedback nature of this equalizer improves the adaptation time over that of alternative equalizers The results presented in this paper are based on both MatLab simulations and laboratory hardware measurements.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 22-25, 2001 / Riviera Hotel and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / Dynamic hardware and software schemes for trajectory based simulation of LEO satellite channel are presented and evaluated. The simulation models are based on the practical LEO satellite channels and change dynamically with the trajectory using the latitude and longitude of the LEO satellite as input. The hardware simulator is consisted of a trajectory based selective fade generator, a trajectory based Doppler shifter, trajectory based time shadowing simulator and a standard channel for addition of noise, ACI and CCI. A FQPSK modulated signal is passed through a trajectory based dynamic fade generator and the spectrum is distorted. Then the resulting signal is exposed to a trajectory based dynamic Doppler Shifter, simulating the passage of the satellite overhead. Then the proper AWGN, ACI or CCI is added to the signal. At the final stage the signal is passed through a trajectory based time Shadowing simulator. The software simulator is a dynamic real time simulator written in MatLab and its structure is similar to the hardware simulator.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 21, 2002 / Town & Country Hotel and Conference Center, San Diego, California / A series of RF channel flight characterization tests were recently run to benchmark multi-path performance of high-speed quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) over the ocean surface. The modulation format was differential-phase/absolute-amplitude two level polar 16 QAM. The bit rate was 100 Megabits per second with a symbol period of 40nS. An aircraft radiated the test signal at 5 different altitudes. It made two inward flights, on two different days, at each altitude with vertical and horizontal polarization, respectively. Receivers, using circular antenna polarization, were in two different locations. Analysis of the resulting data shows flat fading and frequency selective fading effects.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 22-25, 2001 / Riviera Hotel and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / Shaped Offset QPSK (SOQPSK) has been shown to be nearly identical in performance to Feher-patented FQPSK, which is the Advanced Range Telemetry (ATRM) program's Tier I waveform. Multi-h CPM has been selected as the ARTM Tier II waveform, because it offers 50% better spectral efficiency than the Tier I waveform. Both the Tier I and Tier II waveforms must operate in a multipath channel in order to meet the range community's telemetry requirements. This paper presents an analytical and experimental characterization of SOQPSK and Multi-h CPM in the presence of multipath. Quantitative results are presented which demonstrate the relative robustness of the ARTM Tier I and Tier II waveforms, in channels representative of a typical range environment.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 22-25, 2001 / Riviera Hotel and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / This paper will present measured data in an adjacent channel interference (ACI) environment for both filtered continuous phase frequency shift keying (CPFSK) and Feher’s patented quadrature phase shift keying (FQPSK-B) [1]. The quantity measured was bit error probability (BEP) versus signal energy per bit to noise power spectral density ratio (E(b)/N(o)). The interferers were either CPFSK or FQPSK-B signals. The results presented in this paper will be for bit rates of 5 Mb/s, one interferer 20 dB larger than desired signal, various channel spacings, and two different telemetry receivers. The ACI test effort will collect data sets at several bit rates and with one and two interferers. The results will be useful to system designers and range operators as they attempt to maximize the number of Mb/s that can be simultaneously transmitted in the telemetry bands.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 23-26, 2000 / Town & Country Hotel and Conference Center, San Diego, California / Shaped BPSK (SBPSK) and Shaped Offset QPSK (SOQPSK), as defined in various MIL standards, are widely employed on SATCOM links because they offer an attractive combination of good spectral efficiency, constant envelope characteristics, and interoperability with legacy equipments. More recently, numerous terrestrial applications of OQPSK and similar waveforms (Feher-patented FQPSK) have been proposed. The present paper describes a simple non-proprietary modification of the MIL-STD SOQPSK waveform which offers spectral containment and detection efficiency comparable to or better than FQPSK-B (Revision A1), while preserving a constant envelope characteristic and backward compatibility with existing equipment.

We demonstrate how the performance of offset quadrature phase-shift keying (OQPSK) and its variants of Feher-patented QPSK (FQPSK) and Shaped Offset QPSK (SOQPSK) (collectively known as the ARTM Tier-1 waveforms) in single input single output (SISO) system could change with the channel fading parameters. The bit error rate expression of offset QSPK and ATRM Tier-1 waveforms over the aeronautical telemetry multipath channel has been derived. Simulations show that for the case of a single multipath ray, the BER gets worse with increasing Γ for a fixed delay, and that the BER has a quasi-periodic property for fixed Γ and increasing τ. For the case of two multipath rays, the multipath component characterized by large amplitude and small delay is the main factor of the BER degradation, while the BER is not very sensitive to the change of multipath delay. Analysis of the average bit error probability shows that a relatively high error floor at approximately 10−2 occurs for |Γ1| ≥ 0.5. When offset quadrature phase-shift keying (OQPSK) is used in multiple input multiple output (MIMO) environment, orthogonal space-time block codes can be applied to waveforms to orthogonalize a space-time coded multiple-input, multiple output link. For offset QPSK, this technique has the advantage of eliminating the I/Q interference associated with simultaneous transmission of offset QPSK waveforms. In addition, orthogonalization presents uncorrelated noise samples to the space-time trellis decoder. As a consequence, a less complex space-time decoder (relative to what would be required without orthogonalization) can be used. It is demonstrated that a concatenated system based on an orthogonal space-time block code and a trellis code, optimized for single-input, single-output fading channel, outperforms a space-time trellis code for a 2x1 system. The space-time block code orthogonalizes the channel seen by the outer code and this simplifies the computations required for decoding. The advantages of orthogonalization are achieved at the expense of rate. In the examples presented, the codes were chosen to have roughly equivalent bit error rate performance and identical code rates: the complexity was compared.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 21, 2002 / Town & Country Hotel and Conference Center, San Diego, California / The Nova HYPERMOD demodulator operates in three modes, the classic pulse-code modulation/frequency modulation (PCM/FM), sometimes known as continuous phase frequency shift keying (CPFSK) mode, shaped offset quadrature phase shift keying (SOQPSK) mode, and continuous phase modulation (CPM) mode. Of interest to this paper is SOQPSK mode which is a waveform similar to the Advanced Range Telemetry (ARTM) Tier I waveform, Feher’s Quadrature Phase Shift Keying, B version (FQPSK-B) revision (Rev) A1. Also considered is another variant, FQPSK-JR. This paper will outline the cross compatibility and resynchronization speed of these waveforms based upon ARTM-adopted demodulator performance tests. The results of these laboratory tests comparing the HYPERMOD demodulator, the enhanced Tier I demodulator, and the current Tier I reference demodulator, both from RF Networks, will be presented.