Receiver Thermal Noise Research Articles

A Spectral Model for Multilook InSAR Phase Noise Due to Geometric Decorrelation

We find that the multilook phase noise associated with geometric decorrelation in a synthetic aperture radar interferogram does not follow the spectral shape of the signal in the range dimension because the phase noise arises from the uncorrelated ends of the frequency bands of the single-channel radar data contributing to the interferogram. The phase noise due to geometric decorrelation therefore diminishes much more quickly than the square root of the number of looks in range when the number of looks is large, and it is thus not well characterized by the common practice of computing the multilook phase noise from the Cramer-Rao bound as a function only of the total coherence and the total number of looks. Large discrepancies may result in cases for which the phase noise due to geometric decorrelation dominates, such as when simulating data with no receiver thermal noise. We present here a more accurate model of the multilook phase noise due to geometric decorrelation in addition to thermal noise. Our model depends on the spectra of the individual channels and on the spectrum of the multilook averaging window in range. Use of this model may have bearing on decisions of whether common-band filtering is necessary for particular applications.

Impact of Pointing Error on the BER Performance of an OFDM Optical Wireless Communication Link over Turbulent Condition

Abstract An analytical approach is developed in this paper to evaluate the bit error rate (BER) performance of an optical wireless (OW) communication system with multiplexing of the RF orthogonal frequency division (OFDM) over turbulent condition taking into account the effect of pointing error. The received signal is detected through direct detection receiver followed by RF synchronous demodulation including the effect of OW channel and different form of noises such as receiver thermal noise, background channel noise and photo detector shot noise. Analysis is developed for an OFDM system over the OW channel, taking into account the effect of pointing error between the transmitter and the receiver in turbulent condition and the analysis reveals that the OFDM OW system is less affected by pointing error with deference to the major power penalty at BER performance. For instance, power penalty at BER 10−9 is found to be 3 dB for 256 OFDM subcarriers with 9 millidegree displacement angle at a data rate of 10 Gbps under turbulent condition. It is found that the system is more influenced by the atmospheric turbulence at a higher data rate.

Development of the dual‐frequency dual‐constellation airborne multipath models

This paper presents a methodology to build multipath models for aviation use of new Global Positioning System (GPS) and Galileo signals. The estimation of airframe multipath errors makes use of carrier phase measurements; thus, it is affected by the integer ambiguities. A new method for removing the ambiguities from the multipath estimation is presented. The method is suitable for measurements from flight data and is able to exclude measurements highly affected by multipath from the estimation by using a derived standard deviation based on the receiver thermal noise only. Next, an overview of the error sources relevant for the multipath estimation is given, and a first concept to separate the receiver antenna errors from the multipath errors is proposed. Finally, the paper discusses overbounding of the observed multipath errors to safely bound the tail risks and the inflation needed to account for uncertainty due to limited amounts of data.

Impropriety-Based Multiantenna Spectrum Sensing With I/Q Imbalanced Radios

Direct conversion radios are widely recognized as the most appealing approach for reducing the hardware cost as well as power consumption in upcoming communication systems. However, such radios are known to entail gain and phase uncertainties along the analog inphase/quadrature (I/Q) paths. In this paper, we address the effects of the transmitter (TX) and receiver (RX) I/Q errors or mismatches on the improperness of the transmitted and received signals, respectively. We analytically show how the properness of a transmitted signal and the receiver thermal noise can be destroyed, respectively, under the transmitter and receiver I/Q errors, given that the corresponding ideal signals are proper under perfect I/Q balance. Then, we address the spectrum sensing problem in cognitive radio systems through modeling it as a composite binary hypothesis testing task, and apply the likelihood ratio test approach to solve it. To this end, we propose three impropriety-based multiantenna spectrum sensing algorithms under the transmitter and receiver I/Q uncertainties. The principle of invariance is exploited to examine the potential constant false alarm rate (CFAR) behavior of the proposed detectors. We analytically prove that all the proposed sensing methods possess CFAR behavior against the noise variance uncertainty, while only two of them have CFAR property against the receiver I/Q mismatch values. The achievable sensing performance of the proposed methods is then analyzed through extensive numerical experiments, and the devised alternative detectors are mutually compared. Finally, analytical solutions are derived to quantify the improvement/degradation in the effective received signal SNR under I/Q imbalanced radios.

Optimizing the placement of spare amplifier cards to increase the achievable information rate resilience

Abstract We evaluate the impact of optical amplifier failure on the achievable information rate (AIR) of a transmission link. We consider two scenarios to avoid link failure. First, we consider that after amplifier failure the optical signals are switched to a redundant passive optical line card which surpasses the damage amplifier. Second, we assume that the optical signals are switched to a redundant amplifier card. From the evolution of the AIR with the position in the link where the failure occurs we demonstrate which are the critical amplifiers that demand amplifier cards redundancy to avoid a link failure, and in which place a redundant passive optical line card is admissible. We consider polarization multiplexing (PM) quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) constellations. To evaluate the AIR, we consider the optical amplified spontaneous emission noise and the nonlinear interference optical noise coherent, as well as the receiver thermal and shot noise sources. Results show that for the first scenario the maximum value attainable by the AIR is strongly dependent on the position of the amplifier failure on the transmission link, being the first amplifiers more critical for the performance of the link. Findings also show that a failure of the last amplifier tends to not affect the AIR. We also observe that it is possible to partially compensate the AIR decrease after an amplifier failure in the first scenario, by optimizing the gain of the remain available amplifiers on the transmission link and by optimizing the transmitter power.

Efficient Fusion of Spectrum Sensing Information under Parameter Uncertainty and Impulsive Noise

This paper addresses the performance of an efficient fusion scheme for cooperative spectrum sensing in the context of cognitive radio systems. The secondary users' decisions are transmitted to the fusion center at the same time and using the same carrier frequency, thus saving bandwidth and time resources of the report channel. The report channel state information and the receiver thermal noise variance are the main parameters used by the decision rule at the fusion center to determine whether the primary signal is present or absent. The global spectrum sensing performance is reported in this paper when the fusion center receiver is subjected to impulsive noise and uncertainty in the estimation of the above parameters. It is demonstrated that the receiver is quite robust against noise variance uncertainty and impulsive noise, whereas its performance may be severely degraded due to channel state information uncertainty.

Spatial beam tracking for Hermite–Gaussian-based free-space optical communications

The problem of spatial tracking for Hermite–Gaussian free-space optical (HG-FSO) links is addressed. Since HG waveforms allow for the simultaneous presence of orthogonal spatial channels, FSO-HG has the potential of offering a considerable increase in system capacity as compared with the standard FSO systems. To harness this capacity gain, the problem of spatial tracking becomes of paramount importance as the presence of spatial error significantly impacts the orthogonality of the HG waveforms. We, then, consider spatial tracking using a standard quad-detector arrangement and assume that the background noise and/or receiver thermal noise are large enough to warrant a Gaussian detection statistics. The performance is assessed in terms of the probability density function of the spatial tracking error for HG order of up to 3. In assessing performance, it is assumed that the impact of the cross-talk among the spatial modes is negligible under the steady-state condition. Numerical results are presented to assess the viability of the tracking loop. Numerical results show that among the HG waveforms with orders ranging from 1 to 3, the second-order HG waveform offers the best tracking performance and, hence, must be selected for the purpose of tracking in HG-FSO systems.

BER Performance of an Optically Pre-amplified FSO System Under Turbulence and Pointing Errors With ASE Noise

The performance of a free space optical (FSO) communication system is significantly affected by various atmospheric turbulence conditions and pointing errors (PEs) apart from the additive noise, which is assumed to be Gaussian. Optical pre-amplifiers are an essential component of FSO systems for improving the receiver sensitivity. However, optical pre-amplification results in amplified spontaneous emission (ASE), which dominates the receiver thermal and shot noises. The square law photodetection process at the receiver in a FSO system necessitates the consideration of chi-square statistics for the decision variable contrary to the Gaussian approximation that is widely used in the literature. In this paper, we evaluate the bit error rate (BER) performance of a FSO system assuming non-return-to-zero on–off keying modulation in the presence of ASE noise under weak, moderate to strong, and very strong atmospheric turbulence regimes and PEs. We also derive asymptotic BER expressions for the considered FSO system for large values of the signal-to-noise ratio in terms of simple elementary functions. Further insight into the system is provided by performing a diversity analysis.

Role of amplifiers gain on the achievable information rate of M-ary PSK and QAM constellations

The impact of optical amplification on the achievable information rate (AIR) is evaluated, considering continuous and discrete modulation formats. The theoretical model for the AIR considers the optical amplification noise, the nonlinear optical noise, and the coherent receiver shot and thermal noise sources. Two different scenarios for the AIR are analyzed. First, we admit that the gain of each optical amplifier under or over compensate the previous fiber span loss. After that, we consider the case where we remove optical amplifiers from the transmission link. Results show that for the first scenario, when we under or over compensate the span loss the AIR tends to decrease. Nevertheless, for low cardinality constellations the AIR is not primarily limited by the gain of the optical amplifiers. In the second scenario, results show that it is possible to remove amplification stages from the end to the beginning of the transmission link without decreasing the AIR. We observe that for a polarization multiplexing (PM) 4-PSK constellation the plateau of 4bits/symbol is preserved even if we remove the last two amplifiers from the transmission link.

Two-Stage Code Acquisition in Wireless Optical CDMA Communications Using Optical Orthogonal Codes

In this paper, we analyze the performance of code acquisition system in atmospheric optical code division multiple access (OCDMA) communications using optical orthogonal codes. Memory introduced by temporal correlation of optical fading process precludes us from using the Markov chain model for a code acquisition analysis. By considering this issue, we discuss how to extend the applicability of the Markov chain model to the atmospheric OCDMA communications. We analyze and compare the performance of correlator and chip level detector (CLD) structures in the acquisition system. In our analysis, we consider the effects of free space optical channel impairments, multiple access interference, and receiver thermal noise in the context of semi-classical photon-counting approach. Furthermore, we evaluate the performance of various two stage schemes that utilize different combinations of active correlator, matched filter, and CLD in search and verification stages, and we find the optimum acquisition scheme among them. Numerical results show significant improvement in reducing the acquisition time and required power for synchronization using our optimum scheme in the wireless OCDMA communications.

Fractional order Pareto distributions with application to X‐band maritime radar clutter

The theory of fractional order calculus is applied to construct variations of the fundamental Pareto clutter model density, used in X-band maritime surveillance radar. Such data are characterised, at high resolution, by spiky clutter returns whose density function possesses heavy tails. By an application of fractional calculus to the Pareto distribution function, together with optimisation applied to determine the fractional derivative order, it is possible to obtain a new model for radar clutter. This is shown to fit real radar clutter returns better than a standard Pareto model. Additionally, it accounts for receiver thermal noise without the complexity of an additional noise distribution.

Analytical and experimental performance evaluation of an integrated Si-photonic balanced coherent receiver in a colorless scenario

We study analytically and experimentally the performance limits of a Si-photonic (SiP) balanced coherent receiver (CRx) co-packaged with transimpedance amplifiers (TIAs) in a colorless WDM scheme. Firstly, the CRx architecture is depicted and characterization results are presented. Secondly, an analytical expression for the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at the CRx output is rigorously developed and various noise sources in the context of colorless reception are outlined. Thirdly, we study experimentally the system-level CRx performance in colorless reception of 16 × 112 Gbps PDM-QPSK WDM channels. Using a 15.5 dBm local oscillator (LO) power, error free transmissions over 4800 and 4160 km at received powers of -3 and -21 dBm per channel, respectively, were achieved in a fully colorless and preamplifierless reception. Next, a set of measurements on one of the center WDM channels is performed where the LO power, received signal power, distance, and number of channels presented to the CRx are swept to evaluate the performance limits of colorless reception. Results reveal that the LO beating with optical noise incoming with the signal is a dominant noise source regardless of received signal power. In the high received signal power regime (~0 dBm/channel), the self-beat noise from out-of-band (OOB) channels is an additional major noise source especially for small LO-to-signal power ratio, short reach and large number of OOB channels. For example, at a received signal power of 0 dBm/channel after 1600 km transmission, the SNR difference between the fully filtered and colorless scenarios, where 1 and 16 channels are passed to the CRx respectively, grows from 0.5 to 3.3 dB as the LO power changes from 12 to 0 dBm. For low received power (~-12 dBm/channel), the effect of OOB channels becomes minor while the receiver shot and thermal noises become more significant. We identify the common mode rejection ratio (CMRR) and sensitivity as the two important CRx specifications that impact the performance at high and low received signal power regimes, respectively. Finally, an excellent match between experimental and analytical SNRs is proven after the derived SNR model is fitted to the experimental data in a least-squares sense. The model is then used to predict that the CRx can operate colorlessly for a fully populated WDM spectrum with 80 channels provided that the LO-to-signal power ratio is properly set.

Detection of Rank-$P$ Signals in Cognitive Radio Networks With Uncalibrated Multiple Antennas

Spectrum sensing is a key component of the cognitive radio paradigm. Primary signals are typically detected with uncalibrated receivers at signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) well below decodability levels. Multiantenna detectors exploit spatial independence of receiver thermal noise to boost detection performance and robustness. We study the problem of detecting a Gaussian signal with rank-P unknown spatial covariance matrix in spatially uncorrelated Gaussian noise with unknown covariance using multiple antennas. The generalized likelihood ratio test (GLRT) is derived for two scenarios. In the first one, the noises at all antennas are assumed to have the same (unknown) variance, whereas in the second, a generic diagonal noise covariance matrix is allowed in order to accommodate calibration uncertainties in the different antenna frontends. In the latter case, the GLRT statistic must be obtained numerically, for which an efficient method is presented. Furthermore, for asymptotically low SNR, it is shown that the GLRT does admit a closed form, and the resulting detector performs well in practice. Extensions are presented in order to account for unknown temporal correlation in both signal and noise, as well as frequency-selective channels.

Free Space Optical Communications via Optical Amplify-and-Forward Relaying

Fading and path loss are the major challenges in practical deployment of free space optical communication systems. In this paper, a cooperative free space communication via an optical amplify-and-forward relay is considered to deal with these challenges. We use photon counting approach to investigate the system bit error probability (BEP) performance and study the effects of atmospheric turbulence, background light, amplified spontaneous emission, and receiver thermal noise on the system performance. We compare the results with those of the multiple-transmitter (MT) system. The results indicate that the performance of the relay-assisted system is much better than that of the MT system in different cases considered. We show that there is an optimum place for the relay from the BEP point of view.

Earth-based 12.6-cm wavelength radar mapping of the Moon: New views of impact melt distribution and mare physical properties

We present results of a campaign to map much of the Moon’s near side using the 12.6-cm radar transmitter at Arecibo Observatory and receivers at the Green Bank Telescope. These data have a single-look spatial resolution of about 40 m, with final maps averaged to an 80-m, four-look product to reduce image speckle. Focused processing is used to obtain this high spatial resolution over the entire region illuminated by the Arecibo beam. The transmitted signal is circularly polarized, and we receive reflections in both senses of circular polarization; measurements of receiver thermal noise during periods with no lunar echoes allow well-calibrated estimates of the circular polarization ratio (CPR) and the four-element Stokes vector. Radiometric calibration to values of the backscatter coefficient is ongoing. Radar backscatter data for the Moon provide information on regolith dielectric and physical properties, with particular sensitivity to ilmenite content and surface or buried rocks with diameter of about one-tenth the radar wavelength and larger. Average 12.6-cm circular polarization ratio (CPR) values for low- to moderate-TiO 2 mare basalt deposits are similar to those of rough terrestrial lava flows. We attribute these high values to abundant few-centimeter diameter rocks from small impacts and a significant component of subsurface volume scattering. An outflow deposit, inferred to be impact melt, from Glushko crater has CPR values near unity at 12.6-cm and 70-cm wavelengths and thus a very rugged near-surface structure at the decimeter to meter scale. This deposit does not show radar-brightness variations consistent with levees or channels, and appears to nearly overtop a massif, suggesting very rapid emplacement. Deposits of similar morphology and/or radar brightness are noted for craters such as Pythagoras, Rutherfurd, Theophilus, and Aristillus. Images of the north pole show that, despite recording the deposition of Orientale material, Byrd and Peary craters do not have dense patterns of radar-bright ejecta from small craters on their floors. Such patterns in Amundsen crater, near the south pole, were interpreted as diagnostic of abundant impact melt, so the fraction of Orientale-derived melt in the north polar smooth plains, 1000 km farther from the basin center, is inferred to be much lower.

Employing Code Domain for Contention Resolution in Optical Burst Switched Networks With Detailed Performance Analysis

We propose the implementation of spectral-amplitude-coding optical code division multiple access (SAC-OCDMA) as a contention resolution technique in optical burst switched (OBS) networks. The new system architecture is presented in details where an all-optical methodology for cancelling multiple access interference is proposed. Performance evaluation of the proposed system in both MAC and optical layers is introduced where the overall burst error rate of the system is evaluated in three cases: full, partial, and no code conversion capabilities taking into account the receiver dark current, thermal, and shot noises at the egress nodes. Our results reveal that a considerable improvement in the performance of each core node in the system is achieved by using SAC-OCDMA instead of WDM in the optical layer underneath an OBS based MAC layer. We also conclude that a slight increase in the employed number of code converters enhances the overall system performance noticeably. Finally, optimum values for the number of codes, which lead to minimum overall burst error rate, are reached at different traffic conditions.

Performance analysis of optically preamplified DC‐coupled burst mode receivers

AbstractBit error rate and threshold acquisition penalty evaluation is performed for an optically preamplified DC‐coupled burst mode receiver using a moment generating function (MGF) description of the signal plus noise. The threshold itself is a random variable and is also described using an appropriate MGF. Chernoff bound (CB), modified Chernoff bound (MCB) and the saddle‐point approximation (SPA) techniques make use of the MGF to provide the performance analyses. This represents the first time that these widely used approaches to receiver performance evaluation have been applied to an optically preamplified burst mode receiver and it is shown that they give threshold acquisition penalty results in good agreement with a prior existing approach, whilst having the facility to incorporate arbitrary receiver filtering, receiver thermal noise and non‐ideal extinction ratio. A traditional Gaussian approximation (GA) is also calculated and comparison shows that it is clearly less accurate (it exceeds the upper bounds provided by CB and MCB) in the realistic cases examined. It is deduced, in common with the equivalent continuous mode analysis, that the MCB is the most sensible approach. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

New code for spectral-amplitude coding optical code-division multiple-access system using avalanche and phase intensity–induced noise photodiodes

A new code for a spectral-amplitude coding optical code-division multiple-access (OCDMA) system called the random diagonal (RD) code is proposed. This code is constructed using code segment and data segment. One of the important properties of this code is that the cross correlation at data segment is always zero, which means that phase intensity–induced noise (PIIN) is reduced. The performances of a RD realistic optical direct-sequence OCDMA network have been evaluated with PIIN and avalanche photodiode (APD) receivers. The comparison carried out included realistic system parameters, such as chromatic dispersion, multiple-access interference (MAI), receiver noises (dark current shot noise, and receiver thermal noise), and photodiode bandwidth. We analyze the error probability of the network taking into account these parameters. Bit-error rate (BER) performance is compared to Hadamard and modified frequency hopping (MFH) codes. It is shown that the system using this new code matrix not only suppresses PIIN, but also allows a larger number of active users compared to other codes. Simulation results show that using point-to-point transmission with three encoded channels, RD code using APD has better BER performance than PIN photodiode. Also, it is found that at 20 km the BER is 1.28×10−20 and 6.26×10−13 for APD and PIN photodiodes, respectively.

Optimization of signal-to-noise ratio in integrated planar optical interconnects packages

The signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of integrated planar optical (IPO) board-to-board interconnections system is analyzed. The SNR is derived as a function of separation between the boards, beam spot size, optical system efficiency, receiver thermal noise, thickness of the substrate, and the angle of propagation of the beam. Based on the analyses and the results obtained it is shown that the design of optical interconnects system can be optimized for maximum SNR using at least one parameter, namely, angle of propagation.

Performance of APD-Based, PPM Free-Space Optical Communication Systems in Atmospheric Turbulence

In this paper, we characterize the performance of a direct-detection, avalanche photodiode-based free-space optical (FSO) communication system in terms of the overall bit-error rate. The system of interest uses pulse-position modulation (PPM) and is subjected to scintillation due to optical turbulence. Two scenarios are considered. In one case, a weak turbulence (clear-air) scenario is considered, for which the received signal intensity may be modeled as a log-normal random process. In the other case, we consider a negative exponentially distributed received signal intensity. To arrive at the desired results, it is assumed that the system uses a binary PPM (BPPM) modulation scheme. Furthermore, it is assumed that the receiver thermal noise is nonnegligible, and that the average signal intensity is large enough to justify a Gaussian approximation at the receiver. Union bound is used to assess the performance of M-ary PPM systems using the results of the BPPM scenario. Numerical results are presented for the BPPM case to shed light on the impact of turbulence on the overall performance.