Frequency Source Requirements For Digital Communications Systems

The Calculation of Frequency Source
Requirements for Digital

Communications Systems
Victor S. Reinhardt
08/25/04
IEEE International Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and

Frequency Control 50th Anniversary Joint
Conference, Montreal, August 24-28, 2004
Copyright 2005 Victor S. Reinhardt--Rights to copy material is granted so long as a source

reference is listed on each page, section, or graphic utilized. freq reqs for comm.ppt, V. S. Reinhardt. Page 1
The Calculation of Frequency Source
Requirements for Digital Comm Systems
Introduction
• Frequency sources (oscillators, synthesizers, etc.) are an
important part of digital communications systems
• Paper will discuss the derivation of frequency source
requirements from over-all digital comm system parameters
• Will be tutorial treatment for those not familiar with digital comm
theory but familiar with time & frequency theory
• Frequency source properties directly impact the performance of
digital comm systems
– Impact link acquisition & loss of acquisition—T&F community familiar
with synchronization issues—Will not be covered here
– Impact bit error rate (BER) performance--Paper will address this
• Will utilize quadrature phase shift keyed (QPSK) systems for

concrete examples
– But theory applicable to other systems

Basic Digital Comm Concepts
Signals Carrying Digital Information
Value Symbol Symbol Symbol
(1,1) 1 2 3 Signal
Thresholds
Decision
(1,0) t1
Time
(0,1) Tc
t2 t3
(0,0) (2-Bit)
Carrie Decision Epochs Digital
r Words
AxisExample: Unshaped (Rectangular) Symbols in PAM
• At the transmitter a carrier is modulated in a regular time sequence
of symbols to produce a digital communications signal or waveform
• A symbol is a temporal waveform in some modulation space
representing a single digital word of information
• At the receiver the signal is sampled at discrete decision epochs to
determine a modulation value of the carrier
• The modulation value is converted into a digital or data word by
comparing it to decision thresholds
• The symbols occur at a symbol rate Rs=1/Tc (Tc = clock period)
• The bit or data rate R = WRs (W = bits per symbol or word)
Shaped Symbols
• Unshaped (rectangular) symbols are not
bandwidth efficient Symbols in Time Domain
– Sinc functions in freq domain — Un- —
• Shaped symbols are sinc-like functions shaped Shaped
in time domain
– Produce more bandwidth efficient
trapeziodal functions in freq domain
– Do not interfere with each other at decision
epochs -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3
tn/Tc
• The price one pays for shaping is more
stringent timing
Shaped Transmission Symbols in Freq Domain
Composite Signal
— Un- —
1 shaped Shaped
-1 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 f/Rs
tn/Tc

Inter-Symbol Interference (ISI) & Eye
Patterns
• Eye Pattern = Graph of the modulation Eye Pattern
value vs time at the receiver plotted
modulo 1-symbol period (as in a scope
trace)
• Eye opening = region with no value
Inter-Symbol
trajectories in it Interference
• Inter-symbol Interference (ISI) =
Contamination at decision epoch of Eye Opening
modulation value by adjacent symbols (No Trajectories)
– Ideal Decision epoch—no ISI
– Clock errors cause the decision epoch to Shaping
wander off the best decision epoch Narrows
increasing the ISI Eye Width
– Sensitivity of ISI to clock timing = Slope of
eye opening at decision epoch Ideal Decision Epoch
• Even unshaped (square) symbols
generate such eye patterns because of - 0 +
receiver and channel filtering necessary Modulo Symbol Time
to limit signal BW & noise From: Telecom Glossary 2000, American
• Shaped symbols have narrower eye National Standard for
Telecommunications, T1.523-2001,
widths than unshaped ones www.atis.org/tg2k/images/epdplot1.gif

Types of Digital Modulation
Phase Shift Keyed Frequency Pulse Pulse
BPSK, QPSK, 8PSK, .., DPSK Shift Keyed Amplitude Position
Binary, M-ary Shift Keyed or Width
Q FSK or Modulation Modulation
(0,1) (0,0)
(0) (1) PAM PWM
I
Amplitude
(1,0) (1,1)
Complex RF Envelope Freq Time Time
• Type of carrier: RF carrier or subcarrier, Hybrid Modulation

baseband voltage, etc. M-ary Quadrature Amplitude
Shift Keyed or Modulation
• Parameter modulated: amplitude, phase, Coherent Phase-Frequency
frequency, etc. Shift Keyed
• Modulation Order (or number of digital Minimum Shift Keyed (Binary
states 2W): binary, quadrature, M-ary CPFSK)
• Shaped or unshaped Q
• Coherent, incoherent, differential phase 16-QAM . . . .
or 16-QASK . . . .
• Synchronous & asynchronous data (4-Bit word) . . . . I
clock timing (used in hardline systems) . . . .
Bit Error Rate (BER) vs Eb/No
Key Comm System Parameter
• The bit error rate (BER) is the probability that a received bit is
incorrect
• The BER is a function of the SNR at the digital
Uncoded BER
receiver - Ideal
– Rx thermal noise must limited by a filter 10-3
- Actual
10-4 BER
– For an ideal system the Rx filter’s bandwidth is 10-5 Degrad-
equal to the symbol rate Rs = R/W 10-6 ation
– The ideal SNR = Prx /(NoRs) = Pb/(NoR) = Eb/No 10-7
• No = Thermal noise density Eb/No - dB
• Pb = Prx /W = Power per bit Error Correction

Coded BER
• Eb = Pb/R = Prx /Rs = Energy per bit
- Ideal
• BER vs Eb/No the canonical comm link 10-3 - Actual
characterization 10-4 BER
10-5 Degrad-
• BER degradation is the extra Eb/No over ideal 10-6 ation
system to achieve same BER as ideal 10-7
• Error correction coding (ECC) allows up to N Eb/No - dB
bit errors to be corrected in a group or block of
bits--Improves BER above a certain Eb/No
BER Degradation and ISI
Sampled values Ideal QPSK System
V(±1 ±j)/20.5 at • Thermal noise in BW Rs (σ = NoRs)
decision epoch
causes occasional bit errors
• No ISI (jitter)
without thermal • BER (uncoded) = ½*Erfc(2-0.5 V/σ )
noise = ½*Erfc((Eb/No) ½)
Decision Actual QPSK system
thresholds (no thermal noise)
• ISI generates non-thermal jitter δ Vn Jitter δ Vn
• When V + δ Vn is closer to decision
threshold higher BER with thermal noise
• Net effect to increase BER for given Eb/No
• Causes of ISI • Simple BER degradation Models

– Symbol distortion • Worst case model:
– RF carrier phase errors & jitter BER deg = -20Log10 (1-δ V/V)
– Data clock errors & jitter • Noise Model: Use theoretical
curve with Eb/No → Prx /(NoRs + σ V )
2

LO Phase Jitter Requirements in RF
Carrier Digital Comm Systems
Typical RF Carrier Comm System
User Data Symbol RF Symbol Data User
Data Encode Modulator Demod Decode
Xmission -ulator Data
• Error
~ ~
Rx LO
~ ~
Correction Data LO recovery
• Encryption (Sampling) loop only for
Data Clock
• Framing (Sampling) LO phase
coherent
Clock Recover Loops symbols
Transmitter (Tx) Receiver (Rx)
• At the transmitter (Tx) an LO and a clock are required
• At the Receiver (Rx)
– a clock recovery loop is always required to track the Rx clock to the Tx
clock
– a carrier rec loop at the Rx LO required for phase coherent symbols
• Recovery loops track out relative Rx-Tx LO and clock jitter for
fourier frequencies < recovery loop bandwidths
• This is very important in defining the appropriate jitter statistics in
terms of power spectral densities (PSD)
Carrier Phase Jitter and ISI
Q-Symbol
Phase φ jitter produces
Jitter cross-talk
V in I-Channel, etc.
Rx I-Axis
Rx Q-Axis RMS ISI ≅

V*Sin(σ φ )
• Phase jitter produces ISI in quadrature systems through I-Q cross-

talk
• Phase jitter much less of an issue in BPSK because there is no Q
channel (Just produces loss of power)
• The definition of the appropriate of phase variance σ φ 2 is
determined by the phase coherence properties of the system
RF Carrier Phase Jitter and Coherent,
Incoherent, and Differential Systems
• Coherent symbols
Coherent (i.e., QPSK)
– Tx symbols decoded relative to
phase of Rx LO Symbols
– Rx-Tx LO phase independent over
many symbols (recovery loop time
constant Tp ≅ 1/ Bp >> Tc) Rx & Tx LO phase difference
– Must have Tp >> Tc so thermal noise important over many symbols
does not degrade BER through Incoherent (i.e., FSK, ASK)
recovery loop
• (Phase) Incoherent symbols Freq
– Inter-symbol phase unimportant Phase unimportant
– Ex: Freq or amplitude modulation
• Differential symbols Differential (i.e., DPSK)
– Data coded so change in symbol Xmitted Symbols
phase carries information
– Phase matters only from symbol to
symbol Phase only matters
over one symbol
– No Rx carrier recovery loop needed
– BER vs Eb/No worse than for coherent X Decoded Symbol
systems
Calculating LO Phase Jitter for Coherent
Systems
• Definition of phase jitter variance
Lφ (f) (single sideband noise)
for coherent systems
Sum of all LO’s σ φ 2 = 2∫ 0Rs/2 Lφ (f) |1-Hp(f)|2df
σ φ
2
≅ 2∫ Bp
Rs/2
Lφ (f) df
– Hp(f) = recovery loop response
Recovery function
Loop – Assumes channel bandpass filter
tracks Phase Jitter width = symbol rate Rs
out this Integration
region Region f – Lφ (f) = sum of SSB φ -PSD’s of all
LO’s
Carrier Recovery Filter at
Loop BW Symbol • Because of the high pass cut-off
Bp Rate Rs/2 from the carrier recovery loop, this
standard variance exists even for
For oscillator x N flicker of frequency noise
The phase jitter req must be • Rule of thumb for QPSK phase jitter
reduced by N to compensate
for x N multiplication – σ φ should be < 1-3 ° for < 0.1 dB
BER degradation
Typical Lφ (f) Requirements for QPSK LOs
(vs Symbol Rate)
-40 Symbol
Rate Rs
- 10 Hz
L (f)-dBc/Hz -60 - 100 Hz
- 1 KHz
-80 - 10 KHz
- 100 KHz
-100 - 1 MHz
- 10 MHz
-120 Composite Spec - 100 MHz
Rs = 10 Hz - 1 MHz - 1 GHz
-140
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
Fourier Frequency-dBHz
• The curves above show typical Lφ (f) requirements vs symbol rate
– 0.5 ° phase jitter allocated to particular LO
– Oscillator model: flicker frequency + white phase
– Flicker freq and white phase each contribute equally to jitter
– Carrier recovery loop BW optimized for data rate = 0.01 x Data Rate but
≤ 100 KHz (assumed hardware limit for VCO modulation rate)
• For multi-data-rate units, LO’s must satisfy worst case composite
spec for all rates covered by that unit
LO Vibration Sensitivity and Carrier
Phase Jitter
Structural • Vibration induces phase jitter through
|Hg(f)|2 Resonances Freq source g-sensitivity
– Hg(f) =(δ f/f)/δ g = δ y/δ g
• The vibration PSD Sg(f) generates δ f/f-
f PSD Sy (f) directly through Hg(f)
Oscillator g – Sy(f) = |Hg(f)|2 Sg(f)
sensitivity
Sg(f) – S(f) = double-sided PSD’s
• This can be converted to a phase PSD by
f adding a (fo/f)2 factor
Vibration Spectrum – Sφ (f) = |Hg(f)|2 Sg(f)*(fo/f)2
– fo = carrier frequency
Sφ (f) (fo/f)2 factor
because vib • As before, Sφ (f) is integrated from Bp to Rs
generates to produce a phase variance
frequency – σ φ
2
=∫ 0
Rs/2
|Hg(f)|2 Sg(f)*(fo/f)2 |1-Hp(f)|2df
sidebands – σ 2
≅ ∫ Rs/2
|Hg(f)|2 Sg(f)*(fo/f)2 df
φ Bp
f • Because of the (fo/f)2 dependence of Sφ (f),
Vibration Induced there is a strong 1/Bp dependence in σ φ 2
Phase Noise
Typical Vibration Levels in a Commercial
Aircraft
Double Sideband Spectrum Damper Response
-10 20
-20 Sg Level
0
Response – dB
Sg(f) – dBg2/Hz
-30 0.003 g2/Hz

-40 -20
-50 With Without -40
-60 Vibration Vibration
Damper -60 fres = 14.3 Hz
-70 Damper
Q =3
-80 -80
10 20 30 40 -20 -10 0 10 20 30
Fourier Frequency - dBHz f/fres - dB
Vibration levels at a crystal oscillator with and without a

vibration damper
From: PHASE NOISE PERFORMANCE OF SAPPHIRE MICROWAVE OSCILLATORS IN AIRBORNE RADAR
SYSTEMS, T. Wallin, L. Josefsson, B. Lofter, GigaHertz 2003, Proceedings from the Seventh Symposium, November 4–5,
2003, Linköping, Sweden, Linköping ISSN 1650-3740 (www) , Issue: No. 8, URL: http://www.ep.liu.se/ecp/008/.

Typical LO Hg Required vs Data Rate
No Vibration Damper With Vibration Damper
1.E-06 1.E-06
1.E-07 1.E-07
1.E-08 1.E-08
Hg-g2/Hz
Hg-g2/Hz
1.E-09 1.E-09
1.E-10 1.E-10
1.E-11 1.E-11
1.E-12 1.E-12
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
Symbol Rate-dBHz Symbol Rate-dBHz
Sg=0.003 Sg=0.01 Sg=0.03 Sg=0.1
• Using this vib data (scaled by peak Sg without damper), one can
generate the above curves of required Hg vs symbol rate
– Assumes: 0.25° allocated to vibration induced phase jitter, Bp = 0.01Rs,
fo = 10 GHz, and constant Hg vs freq
• Note (because of strong Bp dependence in σ φ 2 ) : (1) Hg regs more
stringent for lower symbol rates, (2) vibration damper helps more at
higher symbol rates & can make things worse at lower rates
Clock Jitter Requirements for Data and
Sampling Clocks
• Decision epoch jitter from data clocks
– Clock jitter requirement value determined by eye pattern behavior
• Sampling or aperture clock jitter in A/Ds & D/As (in digitally
implemented Tx’s and Rx’s)
– Jitter in aperture clock causes non-thermal SNR degradation in A/D’s
and D/A’s (creates amplitude jitter)
– Reduces effective number of bits (ENOB)
– Causes BER degradation
Decision Epoch Jitter Typical Digital Implementation

Data Clock Jitter
Decision SNR of N-Bit word
ISI Threshold degraded by clock jitter
Analog
Effective Input A/D Demod
eye
Opening Recovery
ISI reduced Sampling Loops
Modulo or Aperture
Symbol Period time Clock
Decision Epoch Jitter from Data Clocks
• Analysis of decision jitter similar to
that of phase jitter
Clock Jitter Reqs –σ x
2
=2∫ 0
Rs/2
Lx (f) |1-Hp(f)|2df
vs Symbol Rate –σ x
2
≅ 2∫ Bp
Rs/2
Lx(f) df = (ε Tc)2
– x = φ /(2π Rs) = clock reading error
-5
-6 0.9% of Tc – Lx(f) = sum of SSB x-PSD’s of clocks
Jtter - log(s)
-7 – Rec loop: Hp(f) = response Bp = BW

-8 – Rule of thumb: ε should be < 0.3-0.9 %
-9 for < 0.1 dB DER deg
-10 • Data clock phase jitter σ φ
-11 0.3% of Tc –σ = 2π Rsσ = 2π ε (in radians)
φ x
-12 – Lφ (f) = sum of SSB φ -PSD’s of clocks
30 40 50 60 70 80 90 –σ 2
=2∫ Rs/2
Lφ (f) |1-Hp(f)|2df
φ 0
Symbol Rate - dBHz
–σ φ
2
≅ 2∫ Bp
Rs/2
Lφ (f) df
–Rule of thumb: σ φ should be < 1-3 °
for < 0.1 dB BER degradation
–Same curves as LO Lφ (f) vs Rs (for same
phase jitter and Bp)
Effect of Sampling Clock Jitter in Digital
Implementations
• Digital implementations use A/D Modulated Sinewave
and D/A converters to convert Input at Frequency fSW
between analog and digital
domains
• Jitter tj in aperture clock
generates random amplitude
noise in digitizing a signal with
carrier frequency f
2A Amplitude
• Phase noise generated Jitter δ V
δ φ = 2π fSWδ tj = δ V/A
• Limits SNR of digital output
to δ φ −1 Time Jitter
• Can be converted to an effective δ tj
number of bits (ENOB) of the
converter (with assumptions Phase Jitter
about the size of A) δ φ = 2π fSW δ tj
From: Analog Devices, Mixed-Signal and DSP Design Techniques, Section 2, Sampled Data Systems,
http://www.analog.com/Analog_Root/static/pdf/dataConverters/MixedSignal_Sect2.pdf, p35
SNR due to Aperture (Sampling) Clock
Jitter for Full Scale Sinewave Input
120
Clo
100 kJc 16
i t te
0.1 r
80 ps
SNR - dB
12
ENOB
60 1p
s
10 8
40 ps
0.1
ns 4
20 1n
s
0
60 65 70 75 80 85 90
Sinewave Frequency - dBHz
From: Analog Devices, Mixed-Signal and DSP Design Techniques, Section 2, Sampled Data Systems,
http://www.analog.com/Analog_Root/static/pdf/dataConverters/MixedSignal_Sect2.pdf, p36

Summary--Conclusions
• T&F specs for frequency sources in comm systems can be
derived by understanding the relationship between BER
degradation and frequency source phase and clock jitter
• Recovery loops act as high pass filters that allow the use of
standard variances even in the presence of flicker of frequency
noise
• The critical jitter statistics are derived from PSD’s by integrating

from the loop recovery BW to the symbol rate
– Spurs must be included in jitter integrations (not covered in talk)
• Quadrature systems have more stringent phase jitter

requirements because of I-Q crosstalk
• Frequency source vibration requirements are more critical for low

data rate systems

Frequency Source Requirements For Digital Communications Systems

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The Calculation of Frequency Source

Requirements for Digital

IEEE International Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and

Copyright 2005 Victor S. Reinhardt--Rights to copy material is granted so long as a source

• Will utilize quadrature phase shift keyed (QPSK) systems for

Copyright 2005 Victor S. Reinhardt--Rights to copy material is granted so long as a source

Copyright 2005 Victor S. Reinhardt--Rights to copy material is granted so long as a source

Copyright 2005 Victor S. Reinhardt--Rights to copy material is granted so long as a source

• Type of carrier: RF carrier or subcarrier, Hybrid Modulation

• Pb = Prx /W = Power per bit Error Correction

• Causes of ISI • Simple BER degradation Models

Copyright 2005 Victor S. Reinhardt--Rights to copy material is granted so long as a source

Rx Q-Axis RMS ISI ≅

• Phase jitter produces ISI in quadrature systems through I-Q cross-

-30 0.003 g2/Hz

Vibration levels at a crystal oscillator with and without a

Copyright 2005 Victor S. Reinhardt--Rights to copy material is granted so long as a source

Decision Epoch Jitter Typical Digital Implementation

-7 – Rec loop: Hp(f) = response Bp = BW

Copyright 2005 Victor S. Reinhardt--Rights to copy material is granted so long as a source

• The critical jitter statistics are derived from PSD’s by integrating

• Quadrature systems have more stringent phase jitter

• Frequency source vibration requirements are more critical for low

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