Wireless channel is inherently unpredictable and this results in loss of information as it travels from the transmitter to the receiver. The main reason for this is that multiple copies of the wireless signal arrive at the receiver which sometimes add constructively and at other times destructively, causing deep fades. The deciding factor between signal copies (think of them as echoes) adding constructively or destructively is the relative phase. If the phases are aligned the signals add up but if the phases are not aligned, we get a fade (fades can be as deep as 60-80dB). Wireless engineers over the years have worked around this problem by using multiple antennas also called antenna arrays.
Continue reading Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces ExplainedAll posts by Yasir Ahmed (aka John)
What is Energy Harvesting
Conventional battery powered systems can be impractical, expensive, or have negative environmental impacts. Energy harvesting (EH) offers a potential solution to these problems. Through ambient sources such as solar, vibrational, thermal, and RF, self-sustaining IoT devices can be designed. These devices can be easily implemented in wearables, medical implants, and infrastructure. Companies such as TI and ADI have developed power management systems for EH and consumer products already exist. These products continue to increase in efficiency and practicality every year.
Continue reading What is Energy HarvestingMSK Demodulation Using a Discriminator
It is widely believed that performance of non-coherent receivers is much worse than performance of coherent receivers in terms of Bit Error Rate (BER). Although this is true to some extent but as we show in this post the difference in performance is not that much in case of Minimum Shift Keying (MSK). In fact, there is only a difference of about one dB in an AWGN environment at high Signal to Noise Ratios (SNR). The difference is somewhat larger in flat fading environment but given the simplicity of implementation of a non-coherent receiver the trade-off might be worth it.Continue reading MSK Demodulation Using a Discriminator
Orthogonal Minimum Shift Keying (OMSK)
Some Background
Before we delve deep into Minimum Shift Keying (MSK) and its performance in presence of co-channel interference the reader is advised to look at the following posts.
Post 1 – MSK BER performance in AWGN and flat fading environment when viewed as extension of BPSK
Post 2 – MSK Power Spectral Density and its BER performance in AWGN when viewed as a CPM
Post 3 – MSK BER Performance in AWGN and flat fading environment when viewed as a CPM
Co-channel interference is a phenomenon widely encountered in wireless communication systems and the main reason for that is frequency reuse, which allows the same frequency band to be used over and over again in geographically non-contiguous areas. GSM and other wireless communication systems, using MSK modulation, suffer from the same problem. This has been widely studied in the literature and interference rejection techniques have been proposed. The worst case is one where the power of both the signals (wanted signal and interference) is almost the same and there is no frequency or phase offset.Continue reading Orthogonal Minimum Shift Keying (OMSK)
MSK Bit Error Rate in Rayleigh Fading
I - In the previous two posts we discussed MSK performance in an AWGN channel, first presenting the MATLAB/OCTAVE Code for one sample per symbol case [Post 1], and then extending it to the more general case of multiple samples per symbol [Post 2]. This helps us visualize the underlying beauty of Continuous Phase Modulation (CPM) which reduces out of band energy and consequently lowers Adjacent Channel Interference (ACI). We also briefly touched upon the case of MSK in Rayleigh fading, but did not go into the details. So here we take a deeper dive.Continue reading MSK Bit Error Rate in Rayleigh Fading
MSK – A Continuous Phase Modulation (CPM)
Some Background on MSK
I – In the previous post we presented the mathematical model and code for BER calculation of a popular modulation scheme called MSK. However in the code we shared, we only considered one sample per symbol, which makes MSK look like BPSK. While BPSK symbols fall on the real axis, MSK symbols alternate between real and imaginary axes, progressing by π/2 phase during each symbol period. MSK signal thus has memory and this can help in demodulation using advanced techniques such as Viterbi Algorithm.Continue reading MSK – A Continuous Phase Modulation (CPM)