Automatic Modulation Classification Techniques Research Articles

Deep multilevel architecture for automatic modulation classification

In the realm of wireless communication, deep learning has exhibited promising outcomes across various tasks, including automatic modulation classification (AMC), channel estimation, and signal detection, yielding substantial enhancements in performance and efficiency. AMC plays a pivotal role in identifying the modulation scheme of a received signal without prior knowledge of the transmitter. However, existing AMC techniques attempt to classify both analog and digital modulations together, disregarding their distinct characteristics. In this work, we propose a multilevel approach for AMC, wherein the received signals are first classified into their parent class, i.e., analog or digital modulation, and subsequently further classified into their respective modulation type. For implementing multilevel approach, we propose three distinct deep learning models: analog digital modulation classifier (AD-MC), analog modulation classifier (An-MC), and digital modulation classifier (Dig-MC). Performance analysis is conducted for the individual models as well as for the multilevel model that integrates all three models. The multilevel model demonstrates accurate signal classification at Signal-to-Noise Ratios (SNRs) of 0 dB or higher, achieving a remarkable classification accuracy of over 90%. Furthermore, the proposed multilevel model surpasses state-of-the-art AMC methods in accuracy while maintaining lower complexity.

Deep Learning-Enabled Deceptive Jammer Detection for Low Probability of Intercept Communications

The detection of deceptive jamming in low probability of intercept/low probability of detection (LPI/LPD) tactical communications has been receiving increasing attention, especially in the context of radar communications. In this article, we propose a novel deep-learning-based algorithm, named two-stage deceptive jammer detection (TDJD), for pseudonoise (PN) code-integrated linear frequency modulation chirp jamming signals in radar communications. Specifically, the proposed algorithm uses the time–frequency distribution (TFD) and in-phase and quadrature (I/Q) representations of the received signals to obtain more discriminating features for the detection of unknown deceptive jammers under the realistic assumption that information about the deceptive jammer, such as the PN-code signal, power, and range, is not available. In particular, the received radar signals are converted into two kinds of TFD representations using the Choi–William distribution (CWD) and I/Q representations. Next, a two-stage approach based on deep learning-enabled outlier detection and automatic modulation classification techniques is applied to the CWD and I/Q representations to extract high-level features for jammer detection. Simulation results show that the TDJD algorithm outperforms other relevant deep learning algorithms in terms of the probability of detection and the probability of false alarm. In addition, the TDJD algorithm provides accurate detection at a low signal-to-jammer-plus-noise ratio.

Minimum Power Adversarial Attacks in Communication Signal Modulation Classification with Deep Learning

Integrating cognitive radio (CR) technique with wireless networks is an effective way to solve the increasingly crowded spectrum. Automatic modulation classification (AMC) plays an important role in CR. AMC significantly improves the intelligence of CR system by classifying the modulation type and signal parameters of received communication signals. AMC can provide more information for decision making of the CR system. In addition, AMC can help the CR system dynamically adjust the modulation type and coding rate of the communication signal to adapt to different channel qualities, and the AMC technique help eliminate the cost of broadcast modulation type and coding rate. Deep learning (DL) has recently emerged as one most popular method in AMC of communication signals. Despite their success, DL models have recently been shown vulnerable to adversarial attacks in pattern recognition and computer vision. Namely, they can be easily deceived if a small and carefully designed perturbation called an adversarial attack is imposed on the input, typically an image in pattern recognition. Owing to the very different nature of communication signals, it is interesting yet crucially important to study if adversarial perturbation could also fool AMC. In this paper, we make a first attempt to investigate how we can design a special adversarial attack on AMC. we start from the assumption of a linear binary classifier which is further extended to multi-way classifier. We consider the minimum power consumption that is different from existing adversarial perturbation but more reasonable in the context of AMC. We then develop a novel adversarial perturbation generation method that leads to high attack success to communication signals. Experimental results on real data show that the method is able to successfully spoof the 11-class modulation classification at a model with a minimum cost of about − 21 dB in automatic modulation classification task. The visualization results demonstrate that the adversarial perturbation manifests in the time domain as imperceptible undulations of the signal, and in the frequency domain as small noise outside the signal band.

Novel Cooperative Automatic Modulation Classification Using Vectorized Soft Decision Fusion for Wireless Sensor Networks.

Cooperative automatic modulation classification (CAMC) using a swarm of sensors is intriguing nowadays as it would be much more robust than the conventional single-sensing-node automatic modulation classification (AMC) method. We propose a novel robust CAMC approach using vectorized soft decision fusion in this work. In each sensing node, the local Hamming distances between the graph features acquired from the unknown target signal and the training modulation candidate signals are calculated and transmitted to the fusion center (FC). Then, the global CAMC decision is made by the indirect vote which is translated from each sensing node’s Hamming-distance sequence. The simulation results demonstrate that, when the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) was given by ≥ , our proposed new CAMC scheme’s correct classification probability could reach up close to . On the other hand, our proposed new CAMC scheme could significantly outperform the single-node graph-based AMC technique and the existing decision-level CAMC method in terms of recognition accuracy, especially in the low-SNR regime.

Wireless Signal Representation Techniques for Automatic Modulation Classification

In this paper, we present a comprehensive survey and detailed comparison of techniques that have been applied to the problem of identifying the type of modulation contained within received wireless signals. Known as automatic modulation classification (AMC), the problem has been studied for many decades. AMC plays a significant role in both military and civilian scenarios and is the main step in smart receivers. Especially with the development of software-defined radios and automatic communication systems, IoT technology and the spread of 5G technology bring the number of spectrum-using equipment explosion, making the problem of scarce spectrum resources more prominent. Although AMC techniques can be optimized from the classifier’s point of view, signal pre-processing also plays a critical role. Relevant data representation approaches include time-frequency analysis, cyclostationary transforms, and hybrid techniques.We provide a taxonomy of common approaches based on order and dimensionality along with an overall analysis of signal pre-processing algorithms for AMC. Furthermore, we reproduce the major existing schemes under uniform conditions, allowing an objective comparison among different methodologies. Finally, we create an open-source Python library to simulate these techniques so the results in this paper are reproducible for future research.

Comparison of Automatic Modulation Classification Techniques

The advancement of digital communication and technology triggered new challenges related to the channel and radio spectrum utilization. From the other hand, real-time communications are keen of time where requests need to be processed in very short time. Automatic modulation is one of promising approaches that relies on pretrained classifiers in order to recognize the type of modulation techniques used by the transmitter. Considering that noise is dominating between the transmitter and receiver, the task of automatic modulation classification is become harder. Noise is destroying the obvious features of the signals and degrade the classification accuracy. The modulation identification technique is made to recognize the type of modulation using the deep learning technology. This paper is listing the common stat of the arts used in automatic modulation classification along with their performance measures. It was realized that deep learning classifier manifested in Conventional Neural Network (CNN) is outperformed in AMC scoring of 85.41 % of recognition accuracy.

A survey of traditional and advanced automatic modulation classification techniques, challenges, and some novel trends

SummaryAutomatic modulation classification (AMC) is an important stage in intelligent wireless communication receivers. It is a necessary process after signal detection, and before demodulation. It plays a vital role in various applications. Blind modulation classification is a very difficult task without information about the transmitted signal and the receiver parameters like carrier frequency, signal power, timing information, phase offset, existence of frequency‐selective multipath fading, and time‐varying channels in real‐world applications. The AMC methods are divided into traditional and advanced methods. Traditional methods include likelihood‐based (LB) and feature‐based (FB) methods. The advanced methods include deep learning (DL) methods. In addition, the AMC methods are used to classify different modulation schemes such as ASK, PSK, FSK, PAM, and QAM with different orders and different signal‐to‐noise ratios (SNRs). This paper focuses on summarizing the AMC methoods, comparing between them, presenting the commercial software packages for AMC, and finally considering the new challenges in the implementation of AMC.

Low overhead NOMA receiver with automatic modulation classification techniques

Recently non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) technique has been proposed for boosting spectral efficiencies in 5G cellular networks. In NOMA the transmitter maps a predefined number of user symbols on to the same resources. The conventional receiver for NOMA is the well-known serial interference cancellation. To overcome the problem of high overhead signalling, a receiver with an automatic modulation classification (AMC) algorithm for a K-user NOMA which identifies the modulation scheme of users before symbol detection is proposed. First, a two-user NOMA (TU-NOMA) scheme is treated and the receiver is extended to more general cases. For evaluating the performance of the proposed receiver its bit error rate (BER) for TU-NOMA case has been driven and shown that this can be approximated as the sum of the demodulator BER and the AMC algorithm error probability. The simulation results show the BER degradation can be neglected if an enough number of symbols with sufficiently large SNR values are available.

Robust Automatic Modulation Classification Technique for Fading Channels via Deep Neural Network

In this paper, we propose a deep neural network (DNN)-based automatic modulation classification (AMC) for digital communications. While conventional AMC techniques perform well for additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channels, classification accuracy degrades for fading channels where the amplitude and phase of channel gain change in time. The key contributions of this paper are in two phases. First, we analyze the effectiveness of a variety of statistical features for AMC task in fading channels. We reveal that the features that are shown to be effective for fading channels are different from those known to be good for AWGN channels. Second, we introduce a new enhanced AMC technique based on DNN method. We use the extensive and diverse set of statistical features found in our study for the DNN-based classifier. The fully connected feedforward network with four hidden layers are trained to classify the modulation class for several fading scenarios. Numerical evaluation shows that the proposed technique offers significant performance gain over the existing AMC methods in fading channels.

Deep Neural Network-based Automatic Modulation Classification Technique

Deep Neural Network-based Automatic Modulation Classification Technique

Automatic modulation classification technique for radio monitoring

The automatic classification of the modulation format of a detected signal is the intermediate step between signal detection and demodulation. If neither the transmitted data nor other signal parameters such as the frequency offset, phase offset and timing information are known, then automatic modulation classification (AMC) is a challenging task in radio monitoring systems. The approach of clustering algorithms is a new trend in AMC for digital modulations. A novel algorithm called `highest constellation pattern matching' is introduced to identify quadrature amplitude modulation and phase shift keying signals. The obtained simulation and measurement results outperform the existing algorithms for AMC based on clustering. Finally, it is shown that the proposed algorithm works in a real monitoring environment.

Performance evaluation of the correntropy coefficient in automatic modulation classification

Automatic modulation classification (AMC) techniques have applications in a variety of wireless communication scenarios, such as adaptive systems, cognitive radio, and surveillance systems. However, a common requirement to most of the AMC techniques proposed in the literature is the use of signal preprocessing modules, which can increase the computational cost and decrease the scalability of the AMC strategy. This work proposes the direct use of a similarity measure based on information theory for the automatic recognition of digital modulations, which is known as correntropy coefficient. The performance of correntropy in AMC applied to channels subject to additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) is evaluated. Specifically, the influence of the kernel size on the classifier performance is analyzed, since it is the only free parameter in correntropy. Besides, a relationship between its respective value and the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the channel is also proposed. Considering the investigated modulation techniques, numerical results obtained by simulation demonstrate that there are high accuracy rates in classification, even at low SNR values. By using correntropy, AMC task becomes simpler and more efficient.

Automatic Modulation Classification Methods for Wireless OFDM Systems in TDD Mode

This paper presents a novel automatic modulation classification (AMC) algorithm in wireless time division duplex (TDD) orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems with adaptive modulation (AM). Based upon the maximum-a-posteriori (MAP) criterion, a classification method for digital quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) schemes is developed that exploits the channel reciprocity in TDD systems and the receiver knowledge about the overall transmission data rate. The AMC algorithm enables the application of adaptive modulation in wireless OFDM systems without loss in the effective data rate caused by signaling of the bit allocation table (BAT). Numerical results show almost no performance loss in terms of the packet error ratio (PER) compared to the case with perfect knowledge of the modulation schemes if the proposed AMC technique is used.

Novel Automatic Modulation Classification Using Cumulant Features for Communications via Multipath Channels

Nowadays, automatic modulation classification (AMC) plays an important role in both cooperative and non-cooperative communication applications. Very often, multipath fading channels result in the severe AMC performance degradation or induce large classification errors. The negative impacts of multipath fading channels on AMC have been discussed in the existing literature but no solution has ever been proposed so far to the best of our knowledge. In this paper, we propose a new robust AMC algorithm, which applies higher-order statistics (HOS) in a generic framework for blind channel estimation and pattern recognition. We also derive the Cramer-Rao lower bound for the fourth-order cumulant estimator when the AMC candidates are BPSK and QPSK over the additive white Gaussian noise channel, and it is a nearly minimum-variance estimator leading to robust AMC features in a wide variety of signal-to-noise ratios. The advantage of our new algorithm is that, by carefully designing the essential features needed for AMC, we do not really have to acquire the complete channel information and therefore it can be feasible without any a priori information in practice. The Monte Carlo simulation results show that our new AMC algorithm can achieve the much better classification accuracy than the existing AMC techniques.

Survey of automatic modulation classification techniques: classical approaches and new trends

The automatic recognition of the modulation format of a detected signal, the intermediate step between signal detection and demodulation, is a major task of an intelligent receiver, with various civilian and military applications. Obviously, with no knowledge of the transmitted data and many unknown parameters at the receiver, such as the signal power, carrier frequency and phase offsets, timing information and so on, blind identification of the modulation is a difficult task. This becomes even more challenging in real-world scenarios with multipath fading, frequency-selective and time-varying channels. With this in mind, the authors provide a comprehensive survey of different modulation recognition techniques in a systematic way. A unified notation is used to bring in together, under the same umbrella, the vast amount of results and classifiers, developed for different modulations. The two general classes of automatic modulation identification algorithms are discussed in detail, which rely on the likelihood function and features of the received signal, respectively. The contributions of numerous articles are summarised in compact forms. This helps the reader to see the main characteristics of each technique. However, in many cases, the results reported in the literature have been obtained under different conditions. So, we have also simulated some major techniques under the same conditions, which allows a fair comparison among different methodologies. Furthermore, new problems that have appeared as a result of emerging wireless technologies are outlined. Finally, open problems and possible directions for future research are briefly discussed.