Radio frequency (RF) receivers are inherently non-linear due to non-linear components contained within the RF front-end such as the low noise amplifier (LNA) and mixer. When receivers operate in the non-linear region, this will affect the system performance due to intermodulation products, and cross-modulation, to name a few. Intermodulation products are the result of adjacent channel signals that combine and create intermodulation distortion of the received signal. We call these adjacent channel signals blockers. Receiving blockers are unavoidable in wideband receivers and their effect must be analyzed and properly addressed. This M.S. Thesis studies the effect of blockers on system performance, specifically the symbol error rate (SER), as a function of the receiver non-linearity figure and the blocking signal power and modulation format. There have been numerous studies on the effect of non-linearity in the probability of true and false detections in spectrum sensing when blockers are present. There has also been research showing the optimal modulation scheme for effective jamming. However, we are not aware of work analyzing the effect of modulated adjacent channel blockers on communication system performance. The approach taken in this paper is a theoretical derivation followed by numerical analysis aimed to quantify the effect of receiver nonlinearity on communication system performance as a function of (1) receiver characteristics, (2) blocking signal powers, (3) signal and blocker modulation format, and (4) phase-synchronized/non-synchronized blocker reception. The work focuses on M-PSK modulation schemes. For high blocker powers and non-linearity, the Es/No (Eb/No) performance loss can be as high as 4.7 dB for BPSK modulated signal and BPSK modulated blockers when received in sync with the desired signal. When blockers have a random phase offset with respect to the desired signal, the performance degradation is about 2 dB for BPSK modulated desired and blocker signals. It was found that for an BPSK transmitted signal with phase-synchronous blockers, the SER (BER) deteriorates the most when the blocking signals are of the same modulation. The effect is reduced, but still significant, as the modulation order of the signal of interest or the blockers, or both increases. / Master of Science / This thesis analyzes the effect of non-linear components in wireless receivers on communication system performance. We consider that two strong radio frequency signals adjacent in frequency to the desired signal enter the receiver and cause signal distortion known as 3rd order intermodulation distortion. We analyze the effect on the symbol error rate (SER) in the presence of two modulated blockers. SER defines the ratio of erroneously detected symbols to the total number of transmitted symbols and is a function of the modulation scheme and radio channel conditions. The SER analysis is done for Phase Shift Keying (PSK) modulated signals and blockers for different receiver types and blocker power levels. This thesis derives the theoretical SER expressions followed by numerical analysis aimed to quantify the effect of receiver non-linearity on communication system performance as a function of (1) receiver characteristics, (2) blocking signal powers, (3) signal and blocker modulation formats, and (4) phase-synchronized/non-synchronized reception of blockers. We justify the need for these new SER expressions and verify them via simulations. The thesis shows that modulated blockers can significantly impact communication system performance if the blockers are strong with respect to the signal of interest and if the device is highly non-linear. The work also shows that the performance degradation is a function of the blocker signal characteristics, but there are ways to overcome this loss by design or management. This has important implications on the management of spectrum in the new shared spectrum bands, where heterogeneous systems and devices will coexist with strong signals coming from nearby transmitters, radars or TV stations, among others.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VTETD/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/79489 |
| Date | 03 October 2017 |
| Creators | Dsouza, Jennifer |
| Contributors | Electrical and Computer Engineering, Marojevic, Vuk, Reed, Jeffrey H., Buehrer, R. Michael |
| Publisher | Virginia Tech |
| Source Sets | Virginia Tech Theses and Dissertation |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | ETD, application/pdf |
| Rights | In Copyright, http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
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