MONTE CARLO SIMULATION OF THE PLL FM DEMODULATOR

Pavel Hasan Telecommunications Institute University of Erlangen-Nuremberg Cauerstr. 7, D-91058 Erlangen Germany E-mail: hasan@nt.e-technik.uni-erlangen.de KEYWORDS Communications, Computer-aided analysis, Monte Carlo, Signal processing, Telecommunications ABSTRACT A wide-spread test of the PLL FM demodulator under Gaussian modulation is simulated in consideration of additive noise and FM interference using the Monte Carlo method. The modulating Gaussian random signals are simulated by sums of sine waves of equally spaced frequencies and random phases. The FM signals filtered by the Bessel bandpass filter in front of the PLL FM demodulator are derived using the Fourier method and the coloured noise is obtained by the FFTbased filtering. The simulation is based on solving the nonlinear stochastic integrodifferential equation of the PLL FM demodulator subject to the distorted FM signals and coloured noise using a fast recurrent algorithm. The computational efficiency of the simulation is enhanced by multirate sampling with the filtered FM signals cubic spline interpolated. The output clicks of the PLL FM demodulator due to nonlinear interaction of the desired signal, adjacent channel FM interference and coloured noise are viewed and exemplified. INTRODUCTION The phase-locked loop (PLL) is attractive as a frequency modulation (FM) demodulator because of its threshold extension capabilities compared to the conventional FM discriminator. A wide-spread test of FM demodulators consists in demodulating Gaussian random signals in the presence of additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN). The indispensable input bandpass filter makes the analysis of the PLL FM demodulator difficult by distorting the filtered FM signal and colouring the noise. Lindsey (Lindsey 1972) derived the signalto-noise ratio (SNR) for a single-pole filter in front of the PLL FM demodulator using the FokkerPlanck technique and Gardner (Gardner 1979) obtained the output click rate for a particular hardware experimentally. Although the presence of an interferer has become a very probable event, little seems to be known about the PLL FM demodulator performance under this situation. This paper addresses the simulation of the PLL FM demodulator under Gaussian modulation in consideration of AWGN and FM interference using the Monte Carlo method. Both the desired signal and the interferer are considered to be frequency modulated by Gaussian random signals simulated by sums of sine waves of equally spaced frequencies and random phases. The FM signals and the AWGN are processed by the bandpass filter in front of the PLL FM demodulator using the Fourier method and the FFT-based filtering, respectively. The simulation is based on solving the nonlinear stochastic integrodifferential equation of the PLL FM demodulator subject to the distorted FM signals and coloured noise using a fast recurrent algorithm and multirate sampling. The output clicks of the PLL FM demodulator due to excessive modulation, additive noise and adjacent channel FM interference are viewed and their harmful effect on the PLL FM demodulator performance is reported. MODELLING Consider the desired FM signal s1( t ) = 2S cos[ st +
s

(t )]

(1)

with power S and carrier frequency s additively disturbed by zero-mean stationary AWGN n(t ) with one-sided spectral density N0 rad/s and by cochannel interference i1( t ) = 2J cos[ i t + i( t) +

(2)

with power J , carrier frequency i and as the time-invariant interference phase relative to the desired signal distributed uniformly over ( , ) . The desired signal and the interferer are frequency modulated by Gaussian random processes s (t ) = s ( t) and i (t ) = i (t ) , respectively. The FM signals s1( t ) and i1( t ) are filtered by the

bandpass filter with center frequency s in front of the PLL FM demodulator. Let the filtered desired signal and the filtered interference be given by s2( t ) = 2Sas (t ) cos[ st + and i2 (t ) = 2J ai (t ) cos[ it +
i s

N (t ) =

(t )]

(3)

nc (t ) cos [ ( t) 2S n (t ) + s sin[ ( t) 2S

(t )] (t )]
(9)

(t ) + ] ,

is the loop noise. The recovered message (t ) is obtained by processing the loop estimate (4) (t ) = K f (t )[g( ) + N( )]d
0 t

respectively, where the amplitude modulation as (t ) and the distorted phase modulation s (t ) of the desired signal as well as the amplitude modulation ai (t ) and the distorted phase modulation i( t) of the interferer are due to the linear filtering effects. The AWGN filtered by the input bandpass filter is considered as a narrowband Gaussian process with sample function n(t ) = nc (t ) cos
s

(10)

of the frequency 0 + s (t ) by an ideal rectangular passband lowpass post filter. MONTE CARLO SIMULATION Using the Monte Carlo method (Medhurst and Roberts 1966), the Gaussian message s (t ) of bandwidth Ws rad/s and rms frequency deviation s rad/s is simulated by a sum of Ns sine waves s (t ) = n sin( n s
n =1 Ns

t ns (t ) sin

t.

(5)

In (5), nc (t ) and ns (t ) are quadrature and in-phase noise components, respectively, with spectral densities nc ( ) = n s ( ) = 2N0 H LP ( i )
2

t+

n s

(11)

(6)

where HLP (i ) is the transfer function of the lowpass equivalent to the bandpass filter. The PLL FM demodulator with a multiplier phase detector under this situation obeys the nonlinear stochastic integrodifferential equation (t ) = 0 + s ( t) K f (t )[ g( ) + N( )]d
t 0

where n = s 2 Ns is the peak frequency s deviation of the nth tone, a is the fundamental modulation frequency so that Ns a = Ws , and sn is a random phase distributed uniformly over ( , ) . Analogously, the Gaussian message i (t ) is simulated by i (t ) = n sin (n i
n =1 Ni

(7)

t+

n i

(12)

where ( t) = 0t + s (t ) ( t) is the phase error with (t ) as the loop estimate of the phase 0t + (t ) = (t ) is the frequency error, 0 is the s (t ) , frequency offset of the desired signal relative to the loop quiescent frequency, K is the dc gain of the linearized loop, f () is the impulse response of the loop filter, g(t ) = as (t ) sin ( t) + J a (t ) S i sin[ (t ) + t + i (t ) s (t ) +

(8)

is the phase detector output with = i s as the interference offset from the desired signal, and

where n = i 2 Ni , i and Ni a = Wi are, i respectively, the peak frequency deviation of the nth tone, the rms frequency deviation and the bandwidth of i (t ) , and in is a random phase distributed uniformly over ( , ) . If the numbers Ns and Ni of tones simulating the Gaussian messages are large enough, the statistics of (11) and (12) approach that of Gaussian noise (Medhurst and Roberts 1966). Omitting the details, the signals s2( t ) and i2 (t ) at the output of the bandpass filter are derived using the Fourier method (Medhurst and Roberts 1966) by processing the spectral components of s1( t ) and i1( t ) at the frequencies s n a and i n a ,

respectively, by the filter transfer function. The amplitude modulation and the phase modulation of the filtered FM signals are calculated with arbitrary accuracy depending on the number of spectral components considered. The distorted frequency modulation s ( t) of the filtered desired signal is obtained analytically as the derivative of s (t ) with respect to t. The coloured Gaussian noise processes nc (t ) and ns (t ) are simulated using the FFT-based filtering as follows. Uniformly distributed random sequences (uniform deviates) are generated by a routine based on three linear congruential generators (Press et al. 1990). Normal deviates are obtained from the uniform deviates using the Box-Muller method (Press et al. 1990) and the resultant Gaussian processes are filtered in the frequency domain by the transfer function HLP (i ) . A fast recurrent algorithm
i

bandwidth BW rad/s given by the Carsons rule BW = 2( W + 4 ) (16)

is simulated. An adjacent channel FM interferer with the frequency offset = BW 2 from the desired signal and the signal-to-interference ratio SIR = 10log10 S ( dB) J (17)

is considered. Fig. 1 shows the desired signal and interference frequencies relative to the desired signal carrier frequency s for W = 1 used in the Monte Carlo simulations reported below.

i1

+ i 1t, i = 1,2,...

(13)

with linear prediction i = where

i i

1 ( 2

i 1

),

i = 1,2,...

(14)

= 0 + si i , i = 1,2,...

(15)

is used to solve (7). Computational efficiency of the Monte Carlo simulation is enhanced by implementing the time-consumig Fourier method using a low sampling rate. The fast recurrent algorithm based on (13) - (15) allows a high sampling rate with the amplitude and phase modulation of both filtered FM signals as well as the distorted frequency modulation of the desired signal cubic spline interpolated. SIMULATION RESULTS The Monte Carlo simulation results reported are obtained by using Ns = N i =100 tones as follows: The desired signal and the interference have the same rms frequency deviation s = i = and bandwidth Ws = Wi = W , the desired signal is tuned to the loop quiescent frequency ( 0 = 0) , and s W = 70 . A high-gain second-order loop PLL FM demodulator with the damping factor =1 , one-sided loop noise bandwidth BL , and the sixth-order Bessel bandpass filter of the 3 dB

Fig. 1. Desired signal (continuous line) and interference (dashed line) frequencies relative to the desired signal carrier frequency. The recovered message is distorted due to linear filtering by the bandpass filter and due to clicks resulting from excessive modulation, noise and interference. A click is a sharp frequency spike coupled with a phase step of an integer multiple of 2 (cycle slip). Polarity of a click pulse depends on whether a cycle is lost or gained. An individual click is essentially unipolar with a flat spectrum extending down to dc. The clicks are viewed by measuring the frequency distortion (t ) s (t ) of the recovered message after the post filter of bandwidth W. The ouput clicks are exemplified according to the different physical mechanisms of their origin in what follows. Cycle slips appear at the PLL FM demodulator output even in the absence of noise and interference due to excessive modulation not accommodated to

the loop bandwidth. The resultant frequency distortion and the modulo 4 reduced phase error are shown in Fig. 2.

excessive modulation. Apparently, a compromise bandwidth minimizes the output clicks. The optimum is a weak function of the CNR and a strong function of the W ratio. For W = 1, the optimum loop noise bandwidth BL W .

(a) (a)

(b) Fig. 2. (a) Output clicks and (b) cycle slips due to excessive modulation. W = 1 , BL W = 0.5 . Fig. 3 shows the output clicks and cycle slips of the PLL FM demodulator due to additive noise. The CNR is the carrier-to-noise ratio at the output of the bandpass filter. High frequency components present in the phase error are suppressed by the post filter and hence are absent in the recovered message. For the output clicks to be minimized, the loop bandwidth of the PLL FM demodulator should be as narrow as possible which conflicts with the widest possible loop bandwidth from the point of view of the minimum output clicks due to (b) Fig. 3. (a) Output clicks and (b) cycle slips due to additive noise. W = 1 , BL W = 1, CNR = 0 dB, SIR = 10 dB. Fig. 4 shows the frequency distortion and the modulo 4 reduced phase error due to mainly adjacent channel FM interference. Now the output clicks result from frequency excursions of the recovered message to the interference offset from the desired signal. The clicks contain lower frequency components compared to those due to noise and the phase slips many cycles during a

click. In consequence of their essential energy contents within the message bandwidth, the output clicks due to adjacent channel FM interference particularly degrade the PLL FM demodulator performance.

analysis of the PLL FM demodulator reported shows the output clicks due to adjacent channel FM interference to be particularly harmful. Their substantial energy contents within the message bandwidth reduce the SNR of the recovered message and, consequently, increase the threshold of the PLL FM demodulator. The calculation of the SNR versus CNR curve and the threshold evaluation under the nonlinear interaction of the desired signal, FM interference and coloured noise will be discussed in detail at the conference. ACKNOWLEDGMENT This work was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft under contract Br 617/11. REFERENCES Gardner, F.M. 1979. Phaselock Techniques, 2nd ed. John Wiley & Sons, New York, Chap. 9. Lindsey, W.C. 1972. Synchronization Systems in Communication and Control. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J., Chap. 15. Medhurst, R.G. and J.H. Roberts. 1966. Evaluation of Distortion in F.M. Trunk Radio Systems by a Monte Carlo Method. Proceedings of the IEE 113, no. 4 (Apr.): 570-580. Press, W.H.; B.P. Flannery; S.A. Teukolsky; and W.T. Vetterling. 1990. Numerical Recipes. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, Chap. 7. BIOGRAPHY Pavel Hasan received the Ing. and doctoral degrees in electrical engineering from Czech Technical University, in 1975, and Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, in 1979, respectively. In 1980 he joined the Institute of Radio Engineering and Electronics (IREE), Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences in Prague where he has been engaged in research on synchronization techniques, secondary frequency standards, and frequency control. In 1985 and 1990 he received the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation fellowship for research stays at the Telecommunications Institute, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. Since 1991 he has been employed by the same institution in research projects on noise and interference immunity of phase-locked loop receivers. His current research activities include nonlinear theory and simulation of synchronization systems. Dr. Hasan is a member of the New York Academy of Sciences and a member of the Editorial Staff of the IEEE Communications Society. He is also with the IREE, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic.

(a)

(b) Fig. 4. (a) Output clicks and (b) cycle slips due to adjacent channel FM interference. W = 1, BL W = 1, CNR = 10 dB, SIR = 0 dB. CONCLUSIONS As manifestation of the inherently nonlinear nature of the PLL FM demodulator, the output clicks in the recovered message due to excessive frequency modulation, additive noise and adjacent channel FM interference have been viewed and exemplified using the Monte Carlo simulation. The performance