CA1041234A

CA1041234A - Receiver for electric oscillations modulated by ssma technique

Info

Publication number: CA1041234A
Application number: CA124,047A
Authority: CA
Inventors: Ernst Lampert; Helmut Mahner
Original assignee: Siemens AG
Current assignee: Siemens AG
Priority date: 1970-09-30
Filing date: 1971-09-30
Publication date: 1978-10-24
Also published as: US4123718A; IT1019515B; GB1502253A; FR2374791A1; DE2048056C1; NL155143B

Abstract

Abstract This invention relates to a receiver for co-modulated signals, wherein the received signals are multiplied by a signal, being equal in respect of code, produced int he receiver and the thus obtained signal is demodulated.
In the receiver is provided a control amplifier which in the case of absence of code synchronization obtains the control potential from another receiver comparable to the operation in the presence of code synchronization. This invention is a dignificance for SSMA receivers.

Description

l~lZ;3~
This inven~ion relates to a receiver for electrical oscilla~ions modulated by SS~IA technique, wherein there is provided in an intermediate frequency sec~ion a multiplier for the intermediate frequency signal and a signal modulated by the code to be received and wherein there is conn~cted to said multiplier a demodulator for obtaining the information to be received.
SSMA technique is a transm;ssion process whereby the actual infoTmation is arti~icially spread in the radio frequency band and this radio frequency band is simultaneously used for transmission ~urposes by a plurality of stations. The let'~ers "SSMA" sand for "Spread-Spectrum-Multiple-Access-Modulation". The SSMA process is used in particular in satellite transmissionsystems with multiple access. For example, this technique has been described in detail in the review "Proceedings of the IEEE", Volume 54, ~1966), pp. 763 to 777. It is essential in SSMA technique that a substantial number of trans-mitting stations operate in the same radio-frequency range and that the signals emitted by the individual station each have a specific characteristic modula-tion, The task of said charactcristic modulaltion is twofold, namely on the one hand to spread the individual signal across a wider requency range and on the other hand to identify the individual signal as a code signal for a specific receiving station. This permits each individual receiver to "sift"
a speciic transmitting station by its code signal from the frequency spectrum being received. The code signal oftheindividual station is in that case a relatively long signal, comprising 10 mega bits, for example. It is customary to express the individual signal by means of phase change of the emitted oscillations of high frequency relative to the preceding bit. The actual information is additionally superposed on the code signal at the transmitting station, i.e. in case of rapid-phase-change modulation in such a manner that the code signal comprising relatively many bits is, with regard to substantial-ly fewer bits, inverted in its phase when a change in signal occurs in the flo~
of information. The code signal is produced on the receiver side in a code generator operating in synchronism, with the transmitter side and said code signal~ together with the signal received, is subjected in either radio frequency, or usually in intermediate frequency relationship, to a mult ~ ica-tion process. By this process the code, remaining unchanged by any additionalinformation, permits the occurrence of the signal power in the form of only a signal spectral line, In case the code signal on the transmitter side in the cycle of the information comprising, in comparison with the code signal, only a few bits, is changed by means of inversion of individual changes in phase, the individual frequency component provides upon receipt of the unchanged code signal an information comprising all of the frequency com~onents which corres-pond to the information on the transmitting side. Whenever a plurality of transmitter stations operate jointly and simul~aneously in the same fre~uency range, there occur in accordance with the multiplication process additional fraquencies, the power of which is substantially lower than that of the informa-tion-bearing signal normally is and which can be grouped as noise with regard to the information d0sired. The SSMA technique requires on the transmitting side as well as on thc receiving side equipme~nt for producing a phase-modulated~
electrical oscillation, whereby emphasis is t:o he placed on the best possible suppression of the actual carrier signal in order to ~eep interfering frequen-cies, being received by the receiver, away from an unintentional frequency conversion or multiplication. A substantial problem in systems of this kind is presented by the fact that in the radio-frequency range few stat;ons operate during certain hours and a larger number of individual stations operate during other hours. This applies in particular to satellite connections where the individual transmission systems extend from the ground station to the satellite and the transponder provided therein and from there to another ground station. In particular in the case of satellite connections of this kind, the transponder in the satellite is provided with a device for keeping the output power constant in order to render it independent of the number of transmitting stations passing their information on to the satellite at one time. The result is that the satellite signal received on the ground has a nearly constant (transmission) level. In case the system wor~s only with the information from a sîngle ground station transmitter, the full power is available for the individual channel. ~lowever, in case a plurality of transmitter stations operate simultaneously in the direc*ion of the satellite, it is possible that the power available for the individual transmission channel (transmitter in

- 2 -direction of the desired receiver via the satellite responder) is up to 45 d~
below the total transmission power of the satellite. This requires that, as a rule, the SSMA demodulator in the receiver must be able to process information-bearing signals at a level of transmission instability or variation in the input level of approximately 60 dB. The summation signal varies as a rule by a maximum of 15 dB. Although one could attempt the balancing of such variations in transmission level by a conventional gain control, it has become apparent that this cannot curb the diffic~ties satisfactorily.
According to the present invention there is provided a receiver for electrical oscillations modulated in accordance with SSMA technique, wherein there is provided, in an intermediate frequency section, a multiplier for multiplication of the signal of intermediate frequency by a signal to be modulated with the code to be received and wherein there is connected to said multiplier a synchronous demodulator for deriving the information to be received, characteri~ed in that in a section preceding the multiplier there is provided a control amplifier with which two control amplitude branches in the receiver are coordinated, one of which plots the output sig-nal of the multiplier and the other the output signal of the synchronous demodulator and in that in an asynchroni~ed condition of the synchronous demodulator the control amplitude is branched off the output of the multi-plier and in the case of synchronous operation in the synchronous demodulator ~b the control amplitude to be branched therefrom is used for the control of the control amplifier.
This invention is based on the recognition that the demodulator in a SSMA receiver requires two control circuits for its demodulation, namely one code phase follow-up control circuit for maintaining the synchronization of the code and a carrier phase follow-up control circuit for synchronizing the received carrier oscillation with the carrier oscillation produced in the

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receiver and in that in the case of noise-blurred signals optimum behaviour is ascertained for both control circuits only when they are provided with `
an input level of a certain value. However, the variations of 60 dB and 15 dB, as stated at the outset, make the fulfillment of this requirement doubtful. Conventional amplitude control circuits deriving a control signal from the output of the receiver part of intermediate frequency by means of rectification, are incapable of overcoming these difficulties because the signal of intermediate ` 3~

3~
frequency, depending on the number of transmitting stations operating in the radio-frequency range contain, due to the limit in transmission power, for example in the satallite transponder, a different proportion of information-bearing signals. ~le difficulties, however, can be effectively overcome when the construction of the control device is carried out in accordance with this invention.
It is advan~ageous to provide the control amplitude branches which are directly connected to ~he output of the multiplier with a filter means for restricting the width of the frequency band to a value in the magnitude of twice the width of the bit kand for the information signal to be received and to obtain the control amplitude by means of rectification of the signal avail-able at the filter output.
Moreover, it is advantageous to connect to the output of the multi-plier, parallel to the actual demodulator, a circuit for determining the code synchronization, furthermore to provide an operation control which in the form of an in~ut signal contains on the one hand the output signal of said circuit and o~rthe other hand a corresponding signal from the demodulator and, moreover, to have the operation control cause the switch-over of the control amplitude acting on the control amplifier, It is further advisable to select the construction in such a manner that the circuit for the demodulation is a synchronous demodulator circuit and that a square demodulator is connected to each of the two quadrature channels of the synchronous demodulator and the output signals of the two square demodu-lators are coordinated in a differential amplifier, the output signal of which is used as the control amplitude. Another advantageous embodiment solving these problems of circuiting technique is to be seen in that in case of use of a synchronous demodulator circuit as demodulator there are connected to both of ~he quadrature arms of the synchronous demodulator a differential amplifier and ~; a summing amplifier connected in parallel, the outputs of which are connected to a multiplier having an output signal which is used as a control amplitude, The invention will nowbe further described in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is a block diagram of a receiver, Figure 2 is a block diagram of a synchronous demodulator, Figure 3 is a block diagram of a first circuit for branching-off a control signal from the synchronous demodulator and Figure 4 is a block diagram of another circuit for the branching-off of the control signal from such a demodulator.
In the receiver according to Figure 1 the radio-frequency signal, covering a frequency range of from 7250 to 7270 ~Mz for example, is received via antenna 1 and passed to a heterodyne circuit 2, obtaining from an oscilla-tor 3 a heterodyne oscillation having a frequency of 7190 ~z. At the output of heterodyne circuit 2, the signal of intermediate frequency is taken up at a frequency of 70 ~Iz ~ 10 M~lz through a band selector 4 and passed to a control amplifier 5 which, technically, is also deined as an "adjusting amplifier".
From the output of control am~lifier 5 the signal of intermediate frequency is passed to multiplier 6 on the one hand and to a code phase follow-up control circuit 7 on the other hand, In said ciruit 7 the code of the transmi~ting station to be received simultaneously modulates a carrier signal which is pass-ed to multiplier ~, Said carrier signal, being passed from 7 to 6, is of a requency different fro~ the signal of intermediate frequency at the input of 6 in such a fashion that in the output of 6 occurs a second intermediate frequency, for example in the frequency range of about 20 h~lz. The information-bearing signal obtained by the multiplication in 6 is "sifted out" with the aid of a ~` band selector ~filter) 8, the band width of which is small in comparison with the band width of intermediate frequency, but large in comparison with the band uidth determined by the bit-sequence frequency of the actual information. In the illustreted embodiment, the band width of band selector 8 may be approximate-ly 50 k~lz. Connected to band selector 8 is a further band selector 9, the band width of which is substantially smaller again and lies approximately in the range of twice the b;t rate of the information to be plotted. In the illustrat-ed embodiment, the band width of the selector may range between 1 kHz and lO kHz, It is possible to vary the band width in accordance with requirements. Band-selector output 9 feeds a rectifier 10, in the direct current circuit of which one of the aforestated control si~nals is available. In the present embodi-ment, said control signal is denoted IAGC, Parallel to band selector ~ are further connected to the output of band selector 8 a carrier phase follow-up control circuit ll and a circuit for determining code synchronization 12.
Structural assembly ll contains the actual demodulator in the fonm of a so-called synchronous demodulator. Consequently, the information to be obtained from the receivin~ signal is made available at output 13. ~rom the synchron-ous demodulator there is derivedJ in a fashion yet to be expl~ined, Yith the aid of Figures 3 and ~, the second of the two aforestated control signals which in Figure l has been denoted CAGC. Assembly 11 further provides an operation control 1~ which is additionally fed by circuit 12 for ascertaining the cod~
synchronization. Said operation control 14 feeds on the one hand assembly 11 and causes on the other hand a change-over switching means 15 to pass in each case the correct one of the two control voltages to control amplifier 5. To change-over switch 15 is fed on the one hand control amplitude IAGC and on the other hand control amplitude CAGC. This change-over in 15 at the time of absence of carrier synchronization from IAGC to CAGC when carrier synchroniza-tion has been reached~ takes place on the strength of the corresponding cPiterion provided by assembly 1~. Assembly 15 may comprise additional circuit members for exercising an influence on the behaviour o the control~ It is ; considered in particular that circuit assemhly 15 be provided ~ith a so-called proportional reset con~rol.
The operation of the carrier-phase synchronization and of the code synchronization in a receiver of this kind is as follows:

_ __ _ I II III
Code synchronization CS existant CS and TS existant A ~CS~ and carrier TS non-existant synchronization (TS) non-existant _ . _ _ _ _ B Output signals of 12 non-existant existant _ . ..... _ _ .
C ignal from 14 to 11 non-existant existant _ .. _ . ~___ D Signal _ 11 ~o 14 non-existant non-existant exlstant E Control signal plotted in 15 IAGC IAGC CAGC
_ . -- . .. .
F Level at output of 4 level varies hy theorotical value, for ex. by ~ 8 dB
~ _ , _ _ _ G Level at output level sumtmation) leve effective level of 8 sum(mation~ level varies, for ex. constant;
constant; by 25 dB; sum(mation~ level e~fective level effective level varies and may be indefinite varies by 5 dB ahove effective and lies below level, for ex. by _ _ sumtmation) 25 dB
,:, L ine A sha~s the typical sequence of the possible operational conditions of the SSMA Teceiver. At the outset, the receiver is completely asynchronized, As there is no code synchronization (CS), no carrier synchron-ization is-possible. In condition I~ the code phase of the code generator in :
7 is changed until code synchronization is achieved. The code phase coinci-dence is Tecognized by 12, producing a signal at the outputs of 12 ~see line B).Said signal is used on the one hand for informing the code phase follow-up control circuit 7 that condition II "CS existant~ TS at present non-existant"
has been`attained~ The same information is also passed to operation control 14 which passes it Ol~ to assembly 11 (see line C), where the carrier synchron-ization is then set up. Condi~ion III "CS and TS existant" is recognized by operation control 14 when 11 passes a signal to 14. The si~nal occurs when there is carrier synchronization (see line D), As revealed in line E, ~he receiver operates in conditions I and II with control signal IAGC, and only ~ - 7 -when operation control 14 has recognized condition III does the switch-over to control signal CAGC takes place. In case the carrier synchronization is lost while the code synchronization exists, condition II reoccurs. In case TS as well as CS are lost, operational condition I reoccurs.
Independent from the operational condition~ the summation level (line F~ in the position of intermediate frequency at the output of 4 is per-mitted to vary by approxima~ely ~ 8 dB from its nominal value. In condition I~ there occurs at the output of 8 a steady level of the summation signal which is generally higher than the level of information-bearing signal required in condition III. The magnitude of the level of the information-bearing or effective signal in condition I is indefinite. In condition II, the level of the summation signal is slightly reduced relative to I and, in contrast ~o I, has no longer a steady value, but varies in accordance with the amplitude of the effective portion, for ex~mple in a range of approximately 25 dB. These variations are accepted by the effective signal only in a range of approximate-ly 5 dB, for example. In condition III, the~ receiver cooperates with control ; Signal CAGC, thareby establishing the lev~l of the effective signal at a predetermined steady value.
In comparison with condition II, the sum (total) signal level, therefore, rises as well, as stated in line G
Figure 2 illustrates a demodulation circuit which is used for the branching of a control signal, besides demodulating the phase-modulated signals.In the cîrcuit according to Figure 2, assemblies 8, 9 and lb according to Figure 1 are also shown in order to illustrate ~here the demodulator circuit is connected. In Figure 2, the ac~ual demodulator has been denoted ll' and the assembly for branching off the control amplitude CAGC being connected with the said demodulator has been denoted 11" in Figure 3. A variation of assembly 11" is illustrated by 11'~ in Figure 4. Demodulator circuit 11' is known per se and has been described, for example, in the review of "Proceedings of the IRE~, 1956, pp 1713 to 1718. This type of circuit is conventionally used for the demodulation of double-side band amplitude modulation signals with suppress-ed carrier. A so-called ~hase-remodulated signal (PSK signal) may be consider-

4;3L~3~
ed as such a double-side band amplitude-modulated signal with suppressed carrier and the circuit described in the aforestated literature passage is also used in the demodulation of phase-remodulated signals The demodulation circui~ comprises two frequency converters 16, 17 for use in the frequency conversion of the received input signals into the base relationship of the band.
Accordingly, there are connected to the output of said circui~ low-pass fil~ers lB, 19 which transmit only the hase band. The output signals of both low-pass filters are passed to a multiplier 20. In view of the fact that the converter oscillation passed to frequency converters 16, 17 and provided by generator 22 has, due to the insertion of phase shifter 23, a phase difference of 90, the output of multiplier 20 produces a signal which is free from any modulation components. This is due to the fact that there is available at the output of filter 18 a base band signal, multiplied by the cosine of a phase angle Y , which is as yet to be described, whereas at the output of band filter 19 the base band signal is available, multiplied by the sine of said phase angle ~ . Phase angle ~ is the difference in phase between the carrier oscil-lation obtained at the output of 8 and the carrier oscillation locally produced in 22, which must be of the same frequency as the carrier oscilla~ion provided by 8. The signal available at the output of multiplier 2~, which may be passed to a network 21 adap~ed to determine the frequency curve of the control circuit, is thus a signal which fully corresponds to the sine of double the difference in phase 2~ and which thus can be used for phase readjustment of local oscilla-tor 22, as illustrated in Figure 2. In case phase angle ~remains, due ~o phase remodulation, at about 180, said signal, being dependent on double the angle (2~), remains unchanged, in contrast to the output signals of filters 18 and 19 which, as stated above, depend on the single angle ~ . The entire circuit thus operates as a synchronous demodulator. ~le information obtained by demodulation in the base band position is available at the output of frequency converter 16.
As a rule, band filter 18, just as band filter 19, has a band ~idth correspond-ing to approximately three times the frequency value of the bit sequence of the original signal. For this reason, it is usually inad~isable to take off the base band at the output of filter 18, because this might cause additional dis-tortions of the base band. In Figure 2, the output of the base band has been ~';3~3~
denoted 13.
The control amplitude CAGC i5 derived from the two quadrature branches ~arms) of said synchronous modulator. The two quadrature branches are denoted by letters (a) and ~b). To each of said two branches is connected a square demodulator 24, 25. In circuit variant ll" (Figure 3), the OlltpUt signals of the two square demodulators 24, 25 are passed to a sum and difference amplifier 26, at the outpu~ of which control amplitude CAGC may be obtained directly. Although conventional type square rectifiers would be suitable as square demodulators, it is advisable to use in this case multipliers which are wired in the fashion of squ`are rectifiers. It will be sufficient for this purpose that the two inputs of a multiplier are wired in parallel and are used as a joint input. ~le required signal is then made available at the output, The use of multipliers wired in this fashio affords the advantage of process-ing signals of greater dynamic range. In the circuit variant according to ll"~
Figure 4), there are on the input side, instead of the two multipliers, an adding amplifier 27 and a difference amplifie~r 28 connected in parallel in the ashion illustrated. The output signals of both amplifiers are passed to a multiplier 29 which directly emits the required control signal CAGCo The wiring of the demodulator and the branching of the control voltage, as defined in Figure 2, is of particular advantage in the case of an SsMA receiver intended for shif~-in-phase-modulated signals. ~lowever, this type of wiring of the demodulator and the branchin~ of control poten~ial is also useful for control purposes, or for other kinds of demodulation requirements, for example in the receiving of in-phase-modulated signals which are not trans-mitted by SSMA technique.

Claims

THE EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION IN WHICH AN EXCLUSIVE
PROPERTY OR PRIVILEGE IS CLAIMED ARE DEFINED AS FOLLOWS:

1. A receiver for electrical oscillations modulated in accordance with SSMA technique, wherein there is provided, in an intermediate frequency section, a multiplier for multiplication of the signal of intermediate frequency by a signal to be modulated with the code to be received and wherein there is connected to said multiplier a synchronous demodulator for deriving the infor-mation to be received, characterized in that in a section preceding the multiplier there is provided a control amplifier with which two control amplitude branches in the receiver are coordinated, one of which plots the output signal of the multiplier and the other the output signal of the synchronous demodulator and in that in an a synchronized condition of the synchronous demodulator the control amplitude is branched off the output of the multiplier and in the case of syn-chronous operation in the synchronous demodulator the control amplitude to be branched therefrom is used for the control of the control amplifier.

2. A receiver according to claim 1, characterized in that the branch-ing of the control amplitude which is directly connected to the output of the multiplier contains a filter means for restricting the width of the frequency band to a value in the magnitude of twice the width of the bit band of the information signal to be received and in that the control amplitude is derived by means of rectification of the signal obtained at the filter output.

3. A receiver according to claim 1, characterized in that there is connected to the output of the multiplier, parallel to the actual demodulator, a circuit for determining the code synchronization, in that there is further provided an operation control, receiving as input signal on the one hand the output signal of said circuit and on the other hand a corresponding signal from the demodulator and in that the operation control causes the switch-over of the control amplitudes actuating the control amplifier.

4. A demodulator and branch-off for the control potential, for a receiver according to claim 1, 2 or 3, characterized in that the circuit for the demodulation is a synchronous demodulator circuit and in that to both of of the quadrature channels of the synchronous demodulator there is a square demodulator each connected and the output signals of said two demodulators are combined in a sum and-difference amplifier, the output signal of which serves as the volume-control amplitude.

5. A demodulat.or and branch-off for a control potential for a receiver according to claim 1, 2 or 3, characterized in that there is provided as democlulator a synchronous demodulator circuit and in that there are connect-ed in parallel to two quadrature arms of the synchronous demodulator a sum-and-difference demodulator and a summing amplifier, the outputs of which are connect-ed to a multiplier, the output signal of which forms the required control amplitude.