Symbol timing measurement for single carrier digital modulations

Abstract

An algorithm is presented for symbol timing measurement in the case of single carrier digital modulation. The algorithm concerns (i) the amplitude modulated signals, M-ary quadrature amplitude modulation and M-ary amplitude shift keying, and (ii) the angle modulated signals, M-ary phase shift keying and M-ary frequency shift keying. The approach followed operates on the base band signal and it is based on the statistical analysis of the digital modulated signal. The symbol timing is evaluated once the occurrence of the consecutive repetition of the virtual symbol is detected. Experimental tests carried out on simulated and on actual digital modulated signals highlight both the algorithm performance and the accuracy.