Characteristics of multi-h coded modulation

Abstract

Multi-h Coded Continuous-Phase Frequency Shift Keying (Multi-h CPFSK) has gained interest in recent years because it offers an additional degree of freedom in the coding of CPFSK. Similar to Trellis Coded Modulation (TCM), it does not use redundancy to achieve coding gain. Hence with properly chosen modulation indices, impact to spectral occupancy is kept to a minimum. While there has been less attention given of this method as compared with TCM, this method can also be used with data coding. In cases where data coding is to be implemented, simultaneous use of Multi-h coding can be implemented with very little increase in complexity. In this thesis, a thorough mathematical review of this technique is made. A multi-oscillator multih coded modulator is shown similar to one presented by Massey for MSK. A unique analytical tool called a multi-oscillator trellis is presented. This considers the phase transitions with respect to each of the signalling frequencies instead of the center frequency, f₀. The multi-oscillator trellis is used to determine the state machine that will switch a bank of oscillators. The purpose of the state machine is to maintain continuous phase at the multi-oscillator output while generating the proper signal frequencies according to the data and modulation index. The Maximum Likelihood Detection process at the receiver is shown as a partition of an uncoded CPFSK signal. Finally, an analysis is made to determine if a modulator with a non-linear frequencyvoltage characteristic is suitable in a coherent multi-h coded application. Much of the literature on this topic has been comparative to PSK. It is the intent of this work to use FSK and MSK as the baseline to determine how existing structures may be extended to realize the benefits of multi-h coding. The application of this coding to an 8 Mbps 23 GHz CPFSK point-to-point terrestrial communications system is also a topic of this thesis. It is in this context that the analysis is made.