Apparatus and method for measuring modulation accuracy

[0002] 1. Field of the Invention

[0003] The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for measuring modulation parameters such as a transmitter gain A₀, a droop factor (an amplitude variation per symbol) σ₀, a frequency error Ω₀, a phase error θ₀and I/Q origin offset B₀in PSK, DPSK, QAM, GMS and similar quadrature-modulated wave signals modulated by digital data.

[0004] 2. Description of the Related Art

[0005] Conventional apparatuses of this kind are disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,187,719 (issued Feb. 16, 1993) (see the disclosure associated with FIG. 15, in particular) and 5,590,158 (issued Dec. 31, 1996). In these apparatus the input modulated wave signal is converted or transformed into an intermediate frequency signal, which is then converted to a digital signal for measurement of the modulation accuracy of the modulated signal through digital processing. And the intermediate frequency signal converted to digital form is subjected to DFT (Discrete Fourier Transform) processing to determine what is called a clock delay that is a phase difference between a symbol in the modulated wave signal and a symbol clock for measuring the symbol, and the intermediate frequency signal is corrected through digital processing by an interpolation filter in accordance with the clock delay thus determined.

[0006] Conventionally, the clock delay is determined through DFT processing of the intermediate frequency signal, so that its sampling rate needs to be sufficiently high, for example, approximately 1 MHz so as to provide the clock delay with required accuracy. Because of such a high sampling rate, much time is spent in digital processing for passing the A/D converted intermediate frequency signal through an intermediate frequency band pass filter and this period of time needed is as long as about one-third the total amount of measuring time of the modulation accuracy measuring apparatus.

[0007] According to the present invention, the intermediate frequency signal converted into digital form is quadrature-converted and the converted output is then down converted by a decimation means to substantially the lowest sampling rate necessary for measurement, which is more than twice the frequency bandwidth of a base band signal that is the quadrature-converted output, about four times in view of design margin. From the output of the decimation means, a clock delay is detected by a clock delay estimate means through utilization of a variance method and the quadrature-converted output is corrected by a delay correct means by the detected clock delay to produce a signal for obtaining demodulated data.

[0008] More specifically, the quadrature-converted output is subjected to fast fourier transform processing, then a rough estimate of a frequency error is calculated from the result of transformation, and the quadrature-converted output is corrected corresponding to the thus calculated frequency error and fed to the decimation means.

[0009] The frequency error of the input quadrature-converted output is further detected by the clock delay estimate means, then the detected frequency error is corrected by a second frequency correct means with respect to the output of the decimation means, and the thus corrected output is fed to the delay correct means.

[0010] The signal corrected by the second frequency correct means is repeatedly fed back to the clock delay estimate means until the frequency error detected by the clock delay estimate means goes down below a predetermined value.

[0011] The clock delay estimate means also detects origin offset of the quadrature-converted output in the I/Q plane and corrects its origin offset accordingly, the thus corrected quadrature-converted output is fed to the delay correct means.

[0012] The delay correct means includes also a decimation means that outputs only data at symbol points.

[0013] An error vector is computed from the output signal of the delay correct means and an ideal signal. The error vector is repeatedly calculated with the corrected delay by the delay correct means slightly varied so that the error vector is minimized.

[0014] FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a general configuration of a modulation accuracy measuring apparatus;

[0015] FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram illustrating an embodiment of the present invention;

[0016] FIG. 3A is a plot showing the amplitude in a data sequence that is input into a clock delay estimate section;

[0017] FIG. 3B is a graph showing an example of covariance value fluctuations with a value k;

[0018] FIG. 3C is a diagram showing an example of variations in symbol points of demodulated data;

[0019] FIG. 3D is a plot illustrating an example of the deviation angle in one signal point group with respect to a reference;

[0020] FIG. 4A is a diagram showing an example of a symbol point distribution in demodulated data;

[0021] FIG. 4B is a diagram showing the center of gravity of each symbol point group in FIG. 4A; and

[0022] FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating the procedure of the embodiment according to the present invention.

[0023] An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. In FIG. 1 there is illustrated in block form a general configuration for digital processing of a high frequency digital modulated signal. A high frequency modulated signal, for example, DQPSK modulated by digital data, from an input terminal 11 is converted by a down converter 12 into an intermediate-frequency signal, which is sampled by an analog-to-digital (AD) converter 13 at a sampling frequency four times higher than the intermediate frequency to produce a digital IF signal. Thereafter the digital signal is subjected to digital processing. In the first place, the digital signal is fed to a quadrature converter, for example, a quadrature detector 14, wherein it is multiplied by sine and cosine signals of a frequency identical with or close to the intermediate frequency. The multiplied outputs are passed through low-pass filters 15 to extract base band signals of in-phase and quadrature component signals I and Q, which are input into a digital signal processor 16 and, at the same time, stored in memories 17_Iand 17_Q, respectively.

[0024] The digital signal processor 16 performs processing such as demodulation and modulation analysis. In FIG. 2 there is illustrated the functional configuration therefor at the output side of the AD converter 13. The output of the AD converter 13 in FIG. 1 is input via an input terminal 21 into a frequency converter/decimation filter 22, wherein it is converted to a base band signal and, at the same time, down converted to a proper sampling rate. This part corresponds to those of the quadarature detector 14 and the low-pass filter 15 in FIG. 1; hardware dedicated to this part is commercially available. The output of the converter/filter 22 is once stored in a memory though not shown. The sampling rate of this output is set at 16 times higher than the symbol rate in this example. The decimation filter is disclosed, for example, in OCHI Hiroshi, “An Introduction to Digital filter Design,” pp.210-212, CQ Publishing Co. Ltd., Jan. 20, 1991. From the base band signal, a burst portion is extracted by a burst detection block 23, and the burst signal is subjected to complex Fourier transform processing by a fourier transform block 24 to detect a frequency error. That is, the input I and Q signals are subjected to complex fast Fourier transform (FFT) processing to detect the frequency at the center point of a power distribution or profile in the frequency domain, that is, the carrier frequency. In this case, the total power P_tof the power spectrum, for example, is calculated and a mid-point frequency between a frequency f₁at which the total power in the low frequency range is above P_t×0.005 and a frequency f₂at which the total power in the high frequency range is above P_t×0.005 is set as the carrier frequency. A deviation of this carrier frequency from a standardized value, that is, a frequency error (Ω₀₁/2π) is calculated. A correcting signal exp(jΩ₀₁t) which uses the frequency error as its frequency is generated by a signal generator 25, and the output I and Q signals of the filter block 22 are respectively multiplied by the correcting signal by a multiplier 26 to correct the frequency error. The value of the frequency error computed by FFT is given as (Ω₀₁/2π)=ΔF−f_sxk/(2N), where f_sis a sampling frequency of 336 kHz, for instance, and N is a FFT size of 1024, for instance. In the multiplication exp(jΩ₀₁t) by the multiplier 26, time t is quantized and hence t[i]=k/f_s, so that exp (jΩ₀₁t)=exp(jk2π/2N) and this matches a trigonometric function table that is used in FFT. Hence, the signal generator 25 does not require sine and cosine operations and only needs to utilize the sine and cosine values used in the FFT operation.

[0025] The I and Q signals thus corrected for frequency errors are limited by a decimation filter 27 to the minimum band necessary for measurement and, for fast execution of operations, they are decimated. The modulated wave needs to be band-limited by a Nyquist filter 28 and the bandwidth of the decimation filter 27 must be chosen such that the modulated wave is band-limited with accuracy. In π/4 DQPSK modulation, since the bandwidth of the Nyquist filter 28 is twice the symbol frequency, it is necessary that the bandwidth of the decimation filter 27 be at least four times the symbol frequency. In other words, the sampling rate needs to be more than four times higher than the symbol rate. The output of the decimation filter 27 is passed through the Nyquist filter 28 so that symbol points converge, and the filter output is fed to a clock delay estimate block 29.

[0026] In a delay detection block 29aof the clock delay estimate block 29, the variance of the signal amplitude for each symbol period is detected with the symbol timing slightly shifted and the timing at which the variance is minimum is set as a clock delay. That is, for example, as shown in FIG. 3A, each value x(i,k) in a sequence of the amplitude (I²+Q²) of a combined signal of the I and Q signals is given a number i for each symbol period and a number k in each symbol period and the variance σ(k)²is computed by the following equation:

[0027] σ(k)²=Σ(x(i,k)−avg x)²avg x≡(Σx(i,k))/N

[0028] where Σ is the summation from i=0 to N−1 and N is a standardized value, which is a little smaller than the value corresponding to the number of symbols contained in one burst (four times larger than the number of symbols in this example). When k matches the symbol timing, the variance σ(k)²decreases sharply as shown in FIG. 3B. This value k (clock phase) is the clock delay. The clock delay could be obtained at resolution higher than that corresponding to the sampling rate by the interpolation between the amplitudes x(i,k) with a curve of a proper order (third order or so, for instance). For example, by repeating the interpolation three times based on a third order interpolation formula, an eight-fold interpolation is performed, and since the original signal prior to the correction is four times higher than the symbol rate, the clock delay can be provided at resolution corresponding to a value 32 times higher than the symbol rate.

[0029] In the clock delay estimate block 29, a rough estimate of the I/Q origin offset as well as a frequency error Ω₀₁are calculated. In the case of π/4 DQPSK modulation, the phase difference between symbols is an integral multiple of 45 degrees. For example, as shown in FIG. 3C, it is any one of signal points P₁to P₈sequentially shifted in the I/Q plane in steps of π/4. A deviation Δθ from the integral multiple of the 45° inter-symbol phase difference is based on the frequency error. The phase difference, (tan⁻¹(I_i+1/Q_i+1)−tan⁻¹(I_i/Q_i)), is divided by π/4, in which case the remainder Δθ_ivaries as depicted in FIG. 3D, and in a frequency error detection block 29b, the frequency error Ω₀₂is calculated by the following equation:

[0030] Ω₀₂≡ΣΔθ_i/(N×2πΔt)

[0031] where Σ represents the summation from i=0 to N, N is identical with the value N used to compute the variance σ(k)²and Δt is the symbol period.

[0032] Even if the origin of the demodulated signal point is at a point B(I₀,Q₀) displaced from the I/Q origin O as shown in FIG. 4A, the midpoint between demodulated signal point groups A and B displaced π apart in phase is substantially at a point (I₀,Q₀), the midpoint between demodulated signal point groups C and D similarly displaced π apart in phase is also substantially at the point (I₀,Q₀), and the midpoints between demodulated signal point groups E and F similarly phased π apart and between those G and H are also substantially at the point (I₀,Q₀). Thus, the centroids (A_x,A_y) to (H_x,H_y) at the respective signal points A to H are computed and they can be used to calculate the origin offset (I₀,Q₀). That is, in an origin offset detection block 29c, letting the position of each point be represented by (A_xi,A_yi) and setting i=0 to Na, the centroid of the signal point group A can be given as follows:

[0033] A_x=ΣA_xi/Na, A_y=ΣA_yi/Na

[0034] where Σ represents the summation from i=0 to Na. Na in the burst represents the number of signals in the signal point group A.

[0035] Likewise, the centroids of the other signal point groups B through H are computed. Next, the midpoint M_ab(M_abx,M_aby) between the centroids (A_x,A_y) and (B_x,B_y) are calculated by the following equations:

[0036] M_abx=(A_x+B_x)/2, M_aby=(A_y+B_y)/2

[0037] Thereafter, midpoints (M_cdx,M_cdy), (M_efx,M_efy) and (M_ghx,M_ghy) between centroids (C_x,C_y) and (D_x,D_y), between (E_x,E_y) and (F_x,F_y) and between (G_x,G_y) and (H_x,H_y) are similarly calculated, and the centroid M(M_x,M_y) of the midpoint group is computed by the following equations:

[0038] M_x=(M_abx+M_cdx+M_efx+M_ghx)/4

[0039] M_y=(M_aby+M_cdy+M_efy+M_ghy)/4

[0040] The origin offset (I₀,Q₀) equals (M_x,M_y).

[0041] A correcting signal exp(jΩ₀₂t) for correcting the frequency error Ω₀₂detected in the clock delay estimate block 29 is generated by a signal generator 31. The I and Q signals from the decimation filter 27 are multiplied by the correcting signal in a multiplier 32, thereby correcting the frequency error.

[0042] In a decision block 33 a check is made to see if the frequency error Ω₀₂used for the frequency error correction is in excess of a predetermined value, and a switching block 30 is controlled accordingly. When the frequency error is greater than the predetermined value, the output of the multiplier 32 is input into the root Nyquist filter 28, then its output is estimated again in the clock delay estimate block 29, and the same frequency correction as mentioned above is carried out. This processing is repeated until the frequency error Ω₀₂goes down below the predetermined value.

[0043] When the frequency error Ω₀₂becomes smaller than the predetermined value, the origin offset I₀/Q₀is subtracted from the output of the multiplier 32 in an origin offset correcting block 40 and input into a root Nyquist delay/decimation filter 34, which corrects the clock delay and, at the same time, decimates data other than the symbol point data. To make this correction of the clock delay, the coefficient of the filter 34 is set corresponding to the clock delay k (Δt) computed in the clock delay estimate block 29. That is, the root Nyquist filter has such a frequency characteristic Y(f) as follows: $Y\left(f\right)=1\mathrm{for}\left|f\right|\le \frac{1-\alpha }{2T}$ $Y\left(f\right)=\cos \left(\frac{\pi \left|f\right|T}{2\alpha }-\frac{\pi \left(1-\alpha \right)}{4\alpha }\right)\mathrm{for}\frac{1-\alpha }{2T}\le \left|f\right|\le \frac{1+\alpha }{2T}$ $Y\left(f\right)=0\mathrm{for}\frac{1+\alpha }{2T}\le \left|f\right|$

[0044] where α is a roll-off coefficient.

[0045] An impulse response y(t) can be computed from an inverse fourier transform of Y(f) as given by the following equation: $y\left(t\right)=\frac{1}{\pi \left(1-{\left(\frac{4\mathrm{\alpha t}}{T}\right)}^2\right)}\left\{\frac{4\alpha }{T}\cos \left(\frac{\pi }{T}\left(1+\alpha \right)t\right)+\frac{1}{t}\sin \left(\frac{\pi }{T}\left(1-\alpha \right)t\right)\right\}$

[0046] When the root Nyquist filter is formed by a FIR filter, y(t) is the filter coefficient. For the correction of the clock delay Δt, the filter coefficient needs only to be determined setting y(t+Δt). The decimation is also made at the same time. In this way, a signal of only sample data synchronized with symbols can be produced. This signal is fed to a demodulating/synchronization detection block 35, wherein it is demodulated and, at the same time, a synchronization symbol (when a synchronization symbol of a particular pattern is contained as in an input signal to some kinds of pocket telephones) is searched, and the demodulated signal is synchronized with the detected symbol and fed to an ideal signal generator 36.

[0047] The thus demodulated data is estimated to be ideal data and a modulated signal (an ideal signal) is generated by the ideal signal generator 36. The ideal signal and the received I and Q signals from the filter 34 are input into a signal parameter estimate block 37, wherein the modulation accuracy parameters A₀, σ₀, θ₀and Ω₀are computed. The computation can be conducted by conventional techniques. This computation is made for each symbol period and the computational complexity is remarkably smaller than in the past. It is checked in a decision block 38 whether the results of computation are proper; if not, then r=Ω₀k+θ₀and σ₀k+jθ (where k is a quantization instant of time) are calculated in a correcting constant calculating block 39 and A₀exp(σ₀k+jθ) is generated by the signal generator 31. The I and Q signals from the filter 27 are corrected accordingly. That is to say, the output signal of the filter 27 is processed for frequency correction, initial phase setting and amplitude normalization.

[0048] The received I and Q signals from the filter 34 and the ideal signal are also fed to an error vector estimate block 41, wherein a modulation accuracy parameter (an error vector ε) is selected from an ultimately optimized parameter group in the same manner as in the past. A decision block 42 controls the phase of the signal from the signal generator 31 to change the clock delay by Δt so that the error vector ε is minimized. The decision block 42 also controls the filter 34 to perform again the same processing of the output signal from the multiplier 32 as described above. When the error vector ε is decided to have become small, the measurement result is displayed on a display 43. The clock delay Δt is adjusted to be, for example, ½ through ⅛ of resolution (accuracy) at which the clock delay was computed in the clock delay estimate block 29, and the adjustment is repeated a proper number of times Δt. At this time, Δt may be decreased from ½ to ¼ and then ⅛.

[0049] In FIG. 5 there is illustrated the procedure described above. For example, complex data sampled at a 366 kHz sampling frequency is fed to the measuring device (S₁), then a burst portion is extracted from the data (S₂), and the extracted burst portion is subjected to complex FFT processing (S₃). Then, a rough estimate of the frequency error Ω₀₁is calculated from the result of complex FFT processing (S₄), the frequency error Ω₀₁is used to perform a frequency error correction of the signal of the burst portion (S₅), then the corrected signal is band limited and, at the same time, decimated by the Nyquist decimation filter to a sampling rate of 84 kHz (S₆). For the output signal of the Nyquist filter, a clock delay is computed by the variance method and, at the same time, the frequency error Ω₀₂and the origin offset B₀are also calculated (S₇). A frequency error correction is carried out for the Nyquist decimation filter output (hereinafter called intermediate data) provided in step S₆(S₈), and a check is made to see if the frequency error Ω₀₂has become smaller than a predetermined value (S₉). If not, then the procedure goes back to step S₇. If the frequency error is smaller than the predetermined value, then the origin offset is subtracted from the frequency-corrected intermediate data (S₁₀), and the clock delay is corrected by the filter 34 and, at the same time, decimated to the symbol period (S₁₁), after which the modulation accuracy parameters are calculated (S₁₂). As a result, a check is made to see if the error vector ε has been minimized (S₁₃); if not, the clock delay Δt for adjustment is set and the procedure returns to step S₁₀(S₁₄). If the error vector ε is found to be minimum, the modulation accuracy parameters computed at that time are displayed (S₁₅).

[0050] The present invention is applicable to the measurement of modulation accuracy parameters of PSK, QAM, GMS and other quadrature modulated waves as well as the π/4 DQPSK modulated wave.

[0051] As described above, the input modulated wave is decimated by the decimation filter 27 to a signal of the required but lowest sampling rate according to the type of modulation or kind of the signal; in the embodiment described above, it is converted to a signal of a sampling rate four times higher than the symbol rate. The clock delay is calculated by the amplitude variance method from such a signal. Since this signal is low in sampling rate and is not a complex signal, the calculation needed is a real-number calculation I²+Q²whose computational complexity is small, and the clock delay can be provided by the afore-mentioned interpolation method with an appreciably high degree of accuracy. The computational complexity even by such an interpolation is significantly smaller than that involved in the prior art which performs digital processing of a complex intermediate frequency signal.

[0052] When the frequency error is large, the signal is seriously distorted in the filter 28, but by calculating a rough estimate of the frequency error Ω₀₁in the FFT processing block 24 and then correcting the error, the clock delay can be estimated accurately in the clock estimate block 29. In this instance, the correction of the frequency error Ω₀₁can utilize the values cosΩ₀₁t and sinΩ₀₁t used in the FFT processing, and hence its computational complexity is small, and the FFT processing can be achieved instantaneously using a commercially available chip.

[0053] Further, the modulation accuracy parameter estimate block 37 and the error vector estimate block 41 only need to perform calculations with the symbol rate period and the computational complexity involved is also small, for example, ⅕ that in the past. Hence, the computing time is reduced as a whole.

[0054] Additionally, the parameters can be provided with a higher degree of accuracy than in the past because the clock delay is repeatedly adjusted a number of times Δt to reduce the error vector.

[0055] Incidentally, the origin offset is also computed by a method significantly simpler than that used in the past.

[0056] It will be apparent that many modifications and variations may be effected without departing from the scope of the novel concepts of the present invention.