Reply by julius February 22, 20092009-02-22
On Feb 21, 5:27&#4294967295;pm, YTach <y.tachw...@gmail.com> wrote:
[snip]
> Also regarding the equalizer, I am also sharing your opinion that I > may probably need it and probably not, when I read the book of > Rappaport "Wireless Communications" &#4294967295;He has mentioned in an example > that an outdoor wireless channel has a coherent bandwidth of 146kHz > and therefore, systems like GSM with 200 kHZ bandwidth do require > equalizers. But I am not sure the coherent bandwidth for indoor > environment and do not have any idea what could be the range of them. > Do you have any clue on this.
Rather than argue qualitatively about this, how about actually measuring the effective channel in your system? If your DAC and ADC are fed off the same clock, this is as simple as sending a proper pseudo-random sequence and cross-correlating the receiver symbols. Then you can try the same exercise with your hand in the way, and you can then "see" the difference. Julius
Reply by YTach February 22, 20092009-02-22
On Feb 22, 3:36&#4294967295;pm, julius <juli...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Feb 21, 11:38&#4294967295;am, cincy...@gmail.com wrote: > > > A dose of reality: if you are clocking the TX and RX off of the same > > source, that implies some sort of physical connection between the two > > devices. If that's available, why not use that connection to carry > > your DBPSK signal instead? > > [snip] > > To add to Jason's comment, also check to make sure that your > wired clock connection does not cause the overall system > response to change (i.e., the wire does not conduct RF signals). > > This has happened to me before .... &#4294967295;and when I unplugged the > clock cable to check the PHY, the antenna response changed > dramatically and I had to start from scratch again!! > > Julius
Wooow Julius, very interesting hint. I am wondering if this is what is happening in my case, never thought of this! I will probe the clocks and see how they look with/without RF board.
Reply by julius February 22, 20092009-02-22
On Feb 21, 11:38&#4294967295;am, cincy...@gmail.com wrote:
> > A dose of reality: if you are clocking the TX and RX off of the same > source, that implies some sort of physical connection between the two > devices. If that's available, why not use that connection to carry > your DBPSK signal instead?
[snip] To add to Jason's comment, also check to make sure that your wired clock connection does not cause the overall system response to change (i.e., the wire does not conduct RF signals). This has happened to me before .... and when I unplugged the clock cable to check the PHY, the antenna response changed dramatically and I had to start from scratch again!! Julius
Reply by YTach February 21, 20092009-02-21
On Feb 21, 12:34&#4294967295;pm, Eric Jacobsen <eric.jacob...@ieee.org> wrote:
> On Fri, 20 Feb 2009 18:31:38 -0600, "ytach" <ytachw...@ou.edu> wrote: > >Hello Guys, > > >I have built a basic DBPSK transceiver and I was verifying the > >implementation when I found out that when I put my hand on the antenna, the > >signal error rate goes up big time. My question to you guys, is it possible > >to implement a basic DBPSK transceiver with no error correction or > >equalization or AGC and yet can sustain the multipath and attenuation > >effect of placing hand around the antenna? When do I need really these > >components (Please guys let me know if my assumptions below are wrong): > > Your physically touching the antenna? &#4294967295;Depending on how your receiver > is built you're probably screwing up the input impedance or something. > As Sebastian mentioned, your antennas may already be in near-field, > and your hand certainly is if you're touching the antenna. &#4294967295; &#4294967295;At that > point, all bets are off. > > >1- AGC : The TX and RX are so close (15 cm apart) and the TX power can go > >from -6dBm to 6 dBm and I am sending at -3 dBm. since the TX and RX are > >fixed in place I did not implement AGC. > > Even wired systems implement AGC. &#4294967295; AGC is pretty fundamental to > getting deterministic receiver response. &#4294967295; Deleting it implies that > the operating conditions are unusually stable, and for a wireless > system that means nothing changes in the environment, no people moving > around, nobody ever opens or closes a door, etc., etc. > > >2- Synchronizer : I did not implement carrier equalization because I am > >using differential coding so I can live without carrier synch with loss 3 > >dB. and I did not implement the symbol synch because I am clocking both TX > >and RX from the same source so I do not need timing extraction. > > As previously mentioned, use the timing connection to carry the data. > > >3- Equalizer > >The bandwidth of my signal is around 400kHz (using BPSK and 0.5 sqrt > >cosine pulse shaping) which I am assuming less than the channel bandwidth > >coherency in indoor environment so an equalizer can be ignored. > > Maybe. &#4294967295; Maybe not. > > >Is it is really possible to implement DBPSK in an indoor environment and > >receive good BER without the components mentioned above? > > IMHO not for any practical application. &#4294967295; If the connection exists for > the synchronization, that's probably a good connection to use for the > data, too. &#4294967295;AGC is fundamental. &#4294967295; Only in very unusual circumstances > can you get away without an AGC if you want a practical system. Study > "dynamic range" in receivers. > > Eric Jacobsen > Minister of Algorithms > Abineau Communicationshttp://www.ericjacobsen.org > > Blog:http://www.dsprelated.com/blogs-1/hf/Eric_Jacobsen.php
Hello Eric, I have first to thank you for your post on pulse shaping, it is really a great post and helped me to tune up my understanding of pulse shaping. From the answers so far, it might be really scaling issues in the receiving chain so problably I have to build the AGC. Also, changing the impedence of the antenna is a good hint. does AGC combat these problems (impedence change which I would guess cause a drop in the wireless signal strength and hence AGC comes to play fix this) ? As a conclusion from your post, I should study the dynamic range of my transceiver. However, as I said earlier, the errors are in burst nature and sometimes lengthy ones. So do you think that AGC is the only problem? Can I trust my modem design completely if I got it working by looping the DAC of TX to the ADC of RX? Also regarding the equalizer, I am also sharing your opinion that I may probably need it and probably not, when I read the book of Rappaport "Wireless Communications" He has mentioned in an example that an outdoor wireless channel has a coherent bandwidth of 146kHz and therefore, systems like GSM with 200 kHZ bandwidth do require equalizers. But I am not sure the coherent bandwidth for indoor environment and do not have any idea what could be the range of them. Do you have any clue on this. Sorry for too many questions. But again thank you for sharing your experience and would be greatful for any hint that can help me going in the right direction. Thank you,
Reply by YTach February 21, 20092009-02-21
On Feb 21, 10:38&#4294967295;am, cincy...@gmail.com wrote:
> On Feb 20, 7:31&#4294967295;pm, "ytach" <ytachw...@ou.edu> wrote: > > > > > > > Hello Guys, > > > I have built a basic DBPSK transceiver and I was verifying the > > implementation when I found out that when I put my hand on the antenna, the > > signal error rate goes up big time. My question to you guys, is it possible > > to implement a basic DBPSK transceiver with no error correction or > > equalization or AGC and yet can sustain the multipath and attenuation > > effect of placing hand around the antenna? When do I need really these > > components (Please guys let me know if my assumptions below are wrong): > > > 1- AGC : The TX and RX are so close (15 cm apart) and the TX power can go > > from -6dBm to 6 dBm and I am sending at -3 dBm. since the TX and RX are > > fixed in place I did not implement AGC. > > > 2- Synchronizer : I did not implement carrier equalization because I am > > using differential coding so I can live without carrier synch with loss 3 > > dB. and I did not implement the symbol synch because I am clocking both TX > > and RX from the same source so I do not need timing extraction. > > > 3- Equalizer > > The bandwidth of my signal is around 400kHz (using BPSK and 0.5 sqrt > > cosine pulse shaping) which I am assuming less than the channel bandwidth > > coherency in indoor environment so an equalizer can be ignored. > > > Is it is really possible to implement DBPSK in an indoor environment and > > receive good BER without the components mentioned above? > > > I am ready to provide any further technical details as needed and would > > appreciate sharing your experience with me > > A dose of reality: if you are clocking the TX and RX off of the same > source, that implies some sort of physical connection between the two > devices. If that's available, why not use that connection to carry > your DBPSK signal instead? > > What I'm getting at is that you will (almost) never have perfect time > synchronization. Your other questions, as to what you can "get away > without having," will have differing answers depending upon the exact > topology of your system; there's no single answer. You seem to have a > basic communications system in place, which will work in the presence > of AWGN and no channel dispersion or attenuation. Those additional > challenges require solutions to combat them, so the answers to your > questions are "yes, you need AGC/equalization/time sychronization" if > the structure of your system demands it. > > Jason- Hide quoted text - > > - Show quoted text -
I totally agree with you Jason, I am going to build all these blocks after I verify that by transceiver is built correctly. My attempts to test that were two: 1- looping back DAC of TX to ADC of RX (so this becomes a regular modem and not a wireless one) and the transceiver is working fine. 2- go wireless! so I tried to control the environment as much as I can. They transceivers are not moving, yet they are probably too close. I eliminate the timing problem by clocking both sides from the same source and here you go, a signal is received but a burst of errors show up from time to time and some time lengthy busts. When I see errors coming and going this way I feel it is clocking problem but I could be wrong. I do not know for sure how wireless channel behave in that short range. Do you have any debugging techniques to suggest. Thank you for your reply Jason
Reply by YTach February 21, 20092009-02-21
On Feb 21, 8:44&#4294967295;am, Sebastian Doht <seb_d...@lycos.com> wrote:
> ytach schrieb: > > > > > > > Hello Guys, > > > I have built a basic DBPSK transceiver and I was verifying the > > implementation when I found out that when I put my hand on the antenna, the > > signal error rate goes up big time. My question to you guys, is it possible > > to implement a basic DBPSK transceiver with no error correction or > > equalization or AGC and yet can sustain the multipath and attenuation > > effect of placing hand around the antenna? When do I need really these > > components (Please guys let me know if my assumptions below are wrong): > > > 1- AGC : The TX and RX are so close (15 cm apart) and the TX power can go > > from -6dBm to 6 dBm and I am sending at -3 dBm. since the TX and RX are > > fixed in place I did not implement AGC. > > > 2- Synchronizer : I did not implement carrier equalization because I am > > using differential coding so I can live without carrier synch with loss 3 > > dB. and I did not implement the symbol synch because I am clocking both TX > > and RX from the same source so I do not need timing extraction. > > > 3- Equalizer > > The bandwidth of my signal is around 400kHz (using BPSK and 0.5 sqrt > > cosine pulse shaping) which I am assuming less than the channel bandwidth > > coherency in indoor environment so an equalizer can be ignored. > > > Is it is really possible to implement DBPSK in an indoor environment and > > receive good BER without the components mentioned above? > > > I am ready to provide any further technical details as needed and would > > appreciate sharing your experience with me > > Well I try to post something constructive: > If the RX and TX are only 15cm apart I suspect the RX is in the > near-field of the TX (depending on your used carrier frequency), so all > your nice models for multi-path propagation that hold for plane waves > won't fit any longer. By the way only comparing the BER does not give > you much insight about what really happened to your signal. Try to > compare the transmitted and received bitstream (in time and frequency > domain) to gain some more insight about what happened to your signal on > the way from the TX to the RX . > > Greetz, > Sebastian- Hide quoted text - > > - Show quoted text -
That is a good clue regarding the model of wireless channel in that range. I will be looking into it. I have simulated my design on a AWGN channel and it is working fine. (yes AWGN is basic but for a controlled setup like that where no mobility exists then I am assuming it is a reasonable test). and you are abosolutely right regarding looking at the bitstream. As a matter of fact, I tried different bitstreams to transmit to have a clue about what is going on. For example, I tried to send a stream of bytes of the value 1 to check if I am having framing synchronization problem, so if I received at the end a stream of 2 or 8 or 16 ... etc then I am having a problem with my framing and the error I am getting is due to frame synching. I am not doing yet any framing synch techniques such as using preamble, I have just added a delay that compensate the delay between TX and RX. I am sure that I need to do a frame synch later but since I am building the transceiver step by step, I am trying to verify that I am going to the right direction. Having said that, it turns out that there is no frame synch problem and the errors are quit random. Do you have any suggestions on what I can conclude from the bit stream? Thank you for your reply.
Reply by YTach February 21, 20092009-02-21
On Feb 21, 7:20&#4294967295;am, makol...@yahoo.com wrote:
> On Feb 20, 7:31&#4294967295;pm, "ytach" <ytachw...@ou.edu> wrote: > > > Hello Guys, > > > I have built a basic DBPSK transceiver and I was verifying the > > implementation when I found out that when I put my hand on the antenna, the > > signal error rate goes up big time. My question to you guys, is it possible > > to implement a basic DBPSK transceiver with no error correction or > > equalization or AGC and yet can sustain the multipath and attenuation > > effect of placing hand around the antenna? When do I need really these > > components (Please guys let me know if my assumptions below are wrong): > > > 1- AGC : The TX and RX are so close (15 cm apart) and the TX power can go > > from -6dBm to 6 dBm and I am sending at -3 dBm. since the TX and RX are > > fixed in place I did not implement AGC. > > you probably don't need an AGC if nothing ever moves, but if you're > going to wrap your hand around on of the ants, then you need an AGC. > On the other hand, AGC is easy and could help a lot, why not put it > in? >
Thank you for the advice. I will be looking into the implementation of AGC. I am building the transceiver step by step and I want to make sure that I will not be adding AGC on top of a transceiver that was not built correctly. As a matter of fact, I have tried to connect the output of the DAC of the TX to the ADC of the RX (Since TX and RX are so close) and the receiver is working perfect with no problem (yes the connection here is pretty stable) but when I go wireless by connecting the digital converters to RF boards, then I have this problem at the receive, but you probably right since sometimes I can fix the receiption by tuning "manually" the gains of TX and RX but not always that works which makes me skiptical alittle bit and wondering what else could be wrong.
> > > > 2- Synchronizer : I did not implement carrier equalization because I am > > using differential coding so I can live without carrier synch with loss 3 > > dB. and I did not implement the symbol synch because I am clocking both TX > > and RX from the same source so I do not need timing extraction. > > probably correct > > > 3- Equalizer > > The bandwidth of my signal is around 400kHz (using BPSK and 0.5 sqrt > > cosine pulse shaping) which I am assuming less than the channel bandwidth > > coherency in indoor environment so an equalizer can be ignored. > > probabyl correct > > > Is it is really possible to implement DBPSK in an indoor environment and > > receive good BER without the components mentioned above? > > if the Tx and Rx are a fixed 15 cm apart, probably yes ... > if by "indoor env" you mean moving around through various rooms &#4294967295;then > probabyl no.
I am at the prototyping stage and both TX and RX are at the same room facing each other. so I "feel" that I should be able to establish pretty stable connection at such environment with noise immune modulation such as BPSK. If any clues from your experience could be shared I will be very greatful. Thank you very much for your reply.
> > > > > > > I am ready to provide any further technical details as needed and would > > appreciate sharing your experience with me- Hide quoted text - > > - Show quoted text -
Reply by Eric Jacobsen February 21, 20092009-02-21
On Fri, 20 Feb 2009 18:31:38 -0600, "ytach" <ytachwali@ou.edu> wrote:

>Hello Guys, > >I have built a basic DBPSK transceiver and I was verifying the >implementation when I found out that when I put my hand on the antenna, the >signal error rate goes up big time. My question to you guys, is it possible >to implement a basic DBPSK transceiver with no error correction or >equalization or AGC and yet can sustain the multipath and attenuation >effect of placing hand around the antenna? When do I need really these >components (Please guys let me know if my assumptions below are wrong):
Your physically touching the antenna? Depending on how your receiver is built you're probably screwing up the input impedance or something. As Sebastian mentioned, your antennas may already be in near-field, and your hand certainly is if you're touching the antenna. At that point, all bets are off.
>1- AGC : The TX and RX are so close (15 cm apart) and the TX power can go >from -6dBm to 6 dBm and I am sending at -3 dBm. since the TX and RX are >fixed in place I did not implement AGC.
Even wired systems implement AGC. AGC is pretty fundamental to getting deterministic receiver response. Deleting it implies that the operating conditions are unusually stable, and for a wireless system that means nothing changes in the environment, no people moving around, nobody ever opens or closes a door, etc., etc.
>2- Synchronizer : I did not implement carrier equalization because I am >using differential coding so I can live without carrier synch with loss 3 >dB. and I did not implement the symbol synch because I am clocking both TX >and RX from the same source so I do not need timing extraction.
As previously mentioned, use the timing connection to carry the data.
>3- Equalizer >The bandwidth of my signal is around 400kHz (using BPSK and 0.5 sqrt >cosine pulse shaping) which I am assuming less than the channel bandwidth >coherency in indoor environment so an equalizer can be ignored.
Maybe. Maybe not.
>Is it is really possible to implement DBPSK in an indoor environment and >receive good BER without the components mentioned above?
IMHO not for any practical application. If the connection exists for the synchronization, that's probably a good connection to use for the data, too. AGC is fundamental. Only in very unusual circumstances can you get away without an AGC if you want a practical system. Study "dynamic range" in receivers. Eric Jacobsen Minister of Algorithms Abineau Communications http://www.ericjacobsen.org Blog: http://www.dsprelated.com/blogs-1/hf/Eric_Jacobsen.php
Reply by February 21, 20092009-02-21
On Feb 20, 7:31&#4294967295;pm, "ytach" <ytachw...@ou.edu> wrote:
> Hello Guys, > > I have built a basic DBPSK transceiver and I was verifying the > implementation when I found out that when I put my hand on the antenna, the > signal error rate goes up big time. My question to you guys, is it possible > to implement a basic DBPSK transceiver with no error correction or > equalization or AGC and yet can sustain the multipath and attenuation > effect of placing hand around the antenna? When do I need really these > components (Please guys let me know if my assumptions below are wrong): > > 1- AGC : The TX and RX are so close (15 cm apart) and the TX power can go > from -6dBm to 6 dBm and I am sending at -3 dBm. since the TX and RX are > fixed in place I did not implement AGC. > > 2- Synchronizer : I did not implement carrier equalization because I am > using differential coding so I can live without carrier synch with loss 3 > dB. and I did not implement the symbol synch because I am clocking both TX > and RX from the same source so I do not need timing extraction. > > 3- Equalizer > The bandwidth of my signal is around 400kHz (using BPSK and 0.5 sqrt > cosine pulse shaping) which I am assuming less than the channel bandwidth > coherency in indoor environment so an equalizer can be ignored. > > Is it is really possible to implement DBPSK in an indoor environment and > receive good BER without the components mentioned above? > > I am ready to provide any further technical details as needed and would > appreciate sharing your experience with me
A dose of reality: if you are clocking the TX and RX off of the same source, that implies some sort of physical connection between the two devices. If that's available, why not use that connection to carry your DBPSK signal instead? What I'm getting at is that you will (almost) never have perfect time synchronization. Your other questions, as to what you can "get away without having," will have differing answers depending upon the exact topology of your system; there's no single answer. You seem to have a basic communications system in place, which will work in the presence of AWGN and no channel dispersion or attenuation. Those additional challenges require solutions to combat them, so the answers to your questions are "yes, you need AGC/equalization/time sychronization" if the structure of your system demands it. Jason
Reply by Sebastian Doht February 21, 20092009-02-21
ytach schrieb:
> Hello Guys, > > I have built a basic DBPSK transceiver and I was verifying the > implementation when I found out that when I put my hand on the antenna, the > signal error rate goes up big time. My question to you guys, is it possible > to implement a basic DBPSK transceiver with no error correction or > equalization or AGC and yet can sustain the multipath and attenuation > effect of placing hand around the antenna? When do I need really these > components (Please guys let me know if my assumptions below are wrong): > > 1- AGC : The TX and RX are so close (15 cm apart) and the TX power can go > from -6dBm to 6 dBm and I am sending at -3 dBm. since the TX and RX are > fixed in place I did not implement AGC. > > 2- Synchronizer : I did not implement carrier equalization because I am > using differential coding so I can live without carrier synch with loss 3 > dB. and I did not implement the symbol synch because I am clocking both TX > and RX from the same source so I do not need timing extraction. > > 3- Equalizer > The bandwidth of my signal is around 400kHz (using BPSK and 0.5 sqrt > cosine pulse shaping) which I am assuming less than the channel bandwidth > coherency in indoor environment so an equalizer can be ignored. > > Is it is really possible to implement DBPSK in an indoor environment and > receive good BER without the components mentioned above? > > I am ready to provide any further technical details as needed and would > appreciate sharing your experience with me
Well I try to post something constructive: If the RX and TX are only 15cm apart I suspect the RX is in the near-field of the TX (depending on your used carrier frequency), so all your nice models for multi-path propagation that hold for plane waves won't fit any longer. By the way only comparing the BER does not give you much insight about what really happened to your signal. Try to compare the transmitted and received bitstream (in time and frequency domain) to gain some more insight about what happened to your signal on the way from the TX to the RX . Greetz, Sebastian