Quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) is a highly bandwidth efficient transmission technique for digital communications. It makes use of multiple signal phase and amplitude levels to carry multiple bits per symbol. This requires accurate and robust carrier phase and frequency estimation in the receiver. / Thesis (PhDElectronicEngineering)--University of South Australia, 2002

This thesis examines the sampling and jitter specifications and considerations for Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) software receivers. Software Radio (SWR) technologies are being used in the implementation of communication receivers in general and GNSS receivers in particular. With the advent of new GPS signals, and a range of new Galileo and GLONASS signals soon becoming available, GNSS is an application where SWR and software-defined radio (SDR) are likely to have an impact. The sampling process is critical for SWR receivers where it occurs as close to the antenna as possible. One way to achieve this is by BandPass Sampling (BPS), which is an undersampling technique that exploits aliasing to perform downconversion. In this thesis, the allowable sampling frequencies are calculated and analyzed for the multiple frequency BPS software radio GNSS receivers. The SNR degradation due to jitter is calculated and the required jitter standard deviation allowable for wach GNSS band of interest is evaluated and a basic jitter budget is calculated that could assist in the design of multiple frequency SWR GNSS receivers. Analysis shows that psec-level jitter specifications are required in order to keep jitter noise well below the thermal noise for software radio satellite navigation receivers. However, analysis of a BPSK system shows that large errors occur if the jittered sample crosses a data bit boundary. However, the signal processing techniques required to process the BOC modulation are much more challenging than those for traditional BPSK. BOC and AltBOC have more transitions per chip of spreading code and hence jitter creates greater SNR degradation. This work derives expressions for noise due to jitter taking into account the transition probability in QPSK, BOC, AltBOC systems. Both simulations and analysis are used to give a better understanding of jitter effects on Software Radio GNSS receivers.

Wireless ATM plays a key role in the realization of broadband wireless networks. The transmission of various classes of traffic and the provision of bandwidth on demand over a wireless channel poses a number of new technical challenges. This thesis addresses the design of a low cost adaptive transmitter for fixed wireless ATM/B-ISDN systems with emphasis on optimum use of wireless network resources. A new architecture for a direct microwave wireless ATM transmitter is proposed. The transmitter capacity adaptation is implemented by using an admission control metric and an M-QAM modulator. The two main components of the transmitter are: an M-QAM control unit and a direct microwave QAM modulator unit. The M-QAM control unit is used to select an optimum modulation level for the QAM modulator. The modulation level is adjusted based on the bandwidth demand, QoS requirements, and outage conditions of the wireless ATM link. The direct microwave QAM modulator unit transforms the broadband traffic to a modulated microwave signal that is suitable for transmission over a wireless network. The required bandwidth of the broadband traffic is estimated using an effective bandwidth metric. An analytical relation, called the capacity reduction factor, is derived to represent the performance degradation due to the wireless channel and channel fading in a B-ISDN network. Using the effective bandwidth metric and the capacity reduction factor, a QoS metric for the wireless broadband network is introduced. This metric is termed as, modified effective bandwidth. This metric is used to adapt the M-QAM modulator. Another significant contribution of this research work is a new architecture for the direct QAM modulator. This is based on use of PIN diode reflection attenuators. The PIN diodes operate in forward bias condition thereby overcoming the speed limitation problem due to charge storage. Using residue theory, analytical results to model the large signal forward bias operation of PIN diodes are presented. This theory also examines the transition time of a PIN diode with bias changes from a reverse bias to a forward bias. The direct microwave QAM modulator implementation using MIC and silicon MMIC technologies is examined. While a realization using MIC is simple and straightforward, a silicon MMIC realization offers a very cost effective solution. A system study was conducted to examine the operation of the adaptive direct microwave M-QAM modulator in the wireless channel with ATM traffic. The operation has been examined for different wireless channels and for various classes of traffic. The call acceptance and outage performance are compared with those for a fixed QAM modulator. The results show that the proposed system can be used for implementation of cost effective adaptive transmitters for broadband wireless applications.

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This dissertation proposes new methods for measuring jitter of high-speed digital signals. The proposed techniques are twofold. First, a low-speed jitter measurement environment is realized by using a jitter expansion sensor. This sensor uses a low-frequency reference signal as compared to high-frequency reference signals required in standard high-speed signal jitter measurement instruments. The jitter expansion sensor generates a low-speed signal at the output, which contains jitter content of the original high-speed digital signal. The low-speed sensor output signal can be easily acquired with a low-speed digitizer and then analyzed for jitter. The proposed low-speed jitter measurement environment using the jitter expansion sensor enhances the reliability of current jitter measurement approaches since low-speed signals used as a reference signal and a sensor output signal can be generated and applied to measurement systems with reduced additive noise. The second approach is direct digitization without using a sensor, in which a high-speed digital signal with jitter is incoherently sub-sampled and then reconstructed in the discrete-time domain by using digital signal reconstruction algorithms. The core idea of this technique is to remove the hardware required in standard sampling-based jitter measurement instruments for time/phase synchronization by adopting incoherent sub-sampling as compared to coherent sub-sampling and to reduce the need for a high-speed digitizer by sub-sampling a periodic signal over its many realizations. In the proposed digitization technique, the signal reconstruction algorithms are used as a substitute for time/phase synchronization hardware. When the reconstructed signal is analyzed for jitter in digital post-processing, a self-reference signal is extracted from the reconstructed signal by using wavelet denoising methods. This digitally generated self-reference signal alleviates the need for external analog reference signals. The self-reference signal is used as a timing reference when timing dislocations of the reconstructed signal are measured in the discrete-time domain. Various types of jitter of the original high-speed reference signals can be estimated using the proposed jitter analysis algorithms.

In the past, radio-frequency signals were commonly used for low-speed wireless electronic systems, and optical signals were used for multi-gigabit wired communication systems. However, as the emergence of new millimeter-wave technology introduces multi-gigabit transmission over a wireless radio-frequency channel, the borderline between radio-frequency and optical systems becomes blurred. As a result, there come ample opportunities to design and develop next-generation broadband systems to combine the advantages of these two technologies to overcome inherent limitations of various broadband end-to-end interconnect systems in signal generation, recovery, synchronization, and so on. For the transmission distances of a few centimeters to thousands of kilometers, the convergence of radio-frequency electronics and optics to build radio-over-fiber systems ushers in a new era of research for the upcoming very-high-throughput broadband services. Radio-over-fiber systems are believed to be the most promising solution to the backhaul transmission of the millimeter-wave wireless access networks, especially for the license-free, very-high-throughput 60-GHz band. Adopting radio-over-fiber systems in access or in-building networks can greatly extend the 60-GHz signal reach by using ultra-low loss optical fibers. However, such high frequency is difficult to generate in a straightforward way. In this dissertation, the novel techniques of homodyne and heterodyne optical-carrier suppressions for radio-over-fiber systems are investigated and various system architectures are designed to overcome these limitations of 60-GHz wireless access networks, bringing the popularization of multi-gigabit wireless networks to become closer to the reality. In addition to the advantages for the access networks, extremely high spectral efficiency, which is the most important parameter for long-haul networks, can be achieved by radio-over-fiber signal generation. As a result, the transmission performance of spectrally efficient radio-over-fiber signaling, including orthogonal frequency division multiplexing and orthogonal wavelength division multiplexing, is broadly and deeply investigated. On the other hand, radio-over-fiber is also used for the frequency synchronization that can resolve the performance limitation of wireless interconnect systems. A novel wireless interconnects assisted by radio-over-fiber subsystems is proposed in this dissertation. In conclusion, multiple advantageous facets of radio-over-fiber systems can be found in various levels of end-to-end interconnect systems. The rapid development of radio-over-fiber systems will quickly change the conventional appearance of modern communications.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI Company.

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A sophisticated and high tech form of state-to-foreign population diplomacy based on the use of the latest communication technologies has developed rapidly in recent years and has acquired an increasingly important position within a significant number of foreign affairs systems. Pioneered by the heavyweights of the international stage, the phenomenon has spread rapidly to secondary powers and is progressively extending itself to varying degrees to all states around the globe. This thesis grapples with the enigma raised by the brisk re-emergence of this foreign policy concentration by attempting to understand the reasons behind both the quantitative increase in public diplomacy activities and the qualitative evolution of these activities in terms of planning, organisation and implementation. The first argument that this thesis broaches is that the sudden growth of public diplomacy is the result of the shift to a new phase of the information revolution (necessary enabling force) which has been amplified by contingent factors: the explosion of global terrorism (accelerator) and the perception of leaders and foreign policy makers of this new environment (prism). The second argument is that, beyond quantitative growth, the new operational context born of the advent of the global information society provoked a qualitative evolution of the public diplomacy inherited from the Cold War towards what is today mass diplomacy. The result is the appearance of a market driven diplomacy employing persuasive techniques borrowed from the world of public relations and marketing. The new diplomacy is an entrepreneurial diplomacy that limits governmental leadership to a necessary minimum and encourages the participation of private and foreign sub-contractors. It is also a cyber-space diplomacy equipped with new diplomatic instruments such as high-resolution satellite imagery, high-speed networks, digital broadcasting and other marvels of the late twentieth cen