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At least 55 records · Page 3

Bit Error Rate Performance on Passive Alignment in Free Space Optical Links Using Large Core Fibers

A 20-meter free-space optical link (FSOL) is proposed for data transmission between external ISS payload sites and the main cabin at a target rate of 10 Gbps (gigabits per second). Motion between a payload site and the main cabin is predicted to cause up to 5 cm in lateral misalignment and 0.2 degrees of angular misalignment. Due to the harsh environment of space it is advantageous to locate the optical transceivers inside the spacecraft or in a controlled environment. With the optical components and transceivers in separate locations, a fiber optic cable will be required to carry light between the two. In our past work we found that the use of large-core fibers provide an increased misalignment tolerance for such systems and could eliminate the need for active control of the optics. In that work, it was shown that a 105 m core diameter fiber optic cable offered a viable low SWaP (size, weight, and power) solution for the ISS application; however, the effects of modal dispersion were not investigated. This paper will present bit error rate performance of the FSOL using these large-core fibers.

Optical Bit Error Rate Testing↗

Bit Error Rate Performance on Passive Alignment in Free Space Optical Links Using Large Core Fibers

A 20-meter free-space optical link (FSOL) is proposed for data transmission between external ISS payload sites and the main cabin at a target rate of 10 Gbps (gigabits per second). Motion between a payload site and the main cabin is predicted to cause up to 5 cm in lateral misalignment and 0.2 degrees of angular misalignment. Due to the harsh environment of space it is advantageous to locate the optical transceivers inside the spacecraft or in a controlled environment. With the optical components and transceivers in separate locations, a fiber optic cable will be required to carry light between the two. In our past work we found that the use of large-core fibers provide an increased misalignment tolerance for such systems and could eliminate the need for active control of the optics. In that work, it was shown that a 105 m core diameter fiber optic cable offered a viable low SWaP (size, weight, and power) solution for the ISS application; however, the effects of modal dispersion were not investigated. This paper will present bit error rate performance of the FSOL using these large-core fibers.

Free Space Optical Link↗

Digitally modulated bit error rate measurement system for microwave component evaluation

The NASA Lewis Research Center has developed a unique capability for evaluation of the microwave components of a digital communication system. This digitally modulated bit-error-rate (BER) measurement system (DMBERMS) features a continuous data digital BER test set, a data processor, a serial minimum shift keying (SMSK) modem, noise generation, and computer automation. Application of the DMBERMS has provided useful information for the evaluation of existing microwave components and of design goals for future components. The design and applications of this system for digitally modulated BER measurements are discussed.

Shalkhauser, Mary Jo W.↗

New Short Constraint Length, Rate 1/N Convolutional Codes which Minimize Required E Sub B/n Sub o for Given Bit Error Rate

Instead of using the criterion of maximum free distance, (df) or the maximum (df) with minimizing a few first distance profiles, short constraint length rate 1/N convolution codes were searched using a criterion of minimizing required bit energy-to-noise density ratio, E(b)/N(o), for a given value of desired bit error rate (BER), for the goodness of a code. The considered channel was binary antipodal signaling over additive white Gaussian noise and no quantization at the channel output. For the BER calculations, the transfer function bounding technique was used. Partial searches were performed using some known facts and a very useful idea that "good codes generate good codes.'' That is, for a given constraint length K, good rate 1/(N + 1) codes can be found by extending the code generator matrices of good rate 1/N codes. The code search results are tabulated for 3 or = K or = 7 and 2 or = N or = 8. For many pairs of K and N, the new codes are shown to save 0.1 to 0.4 dB in the required E(b)/N(o) compared to previously reported codes. Additionally, the benefits of coding bandwidth expansion are confirmed with the new codes.

Lee, P. J.↗

Optimal GSTDN/TDRSS bit error rate evaluation using limited sample sizes

Statistical studies of telemetry errors were made on data from the Solar Mesosphere Explorer (SME). Examination of frame sync words, as received at the ground station, indicated a wide spread of Bit Error Rates (BER) among stations. A study of the distribution of errors per station pass, however, showed that there was a tendency for the station software to add an even number of spurious errors to the count. A count of wild points in science data, rejecting drop-outs and other system errors, yielded an average random BER of 3.1 x 10 to the -6 with 99% confidence limits of 2.6 and 3.8 x 10 to the -6. The system errors are typically 5 to 100 times more frequent than the truly random errors.

Coffey, R. E.↗

Efficient bit-error detecting code

Two highly reliable codes termed "Modified b-adjacent interleaving codes" provide fail-safe operation of launch processing and control system in which common memory is coordination point for interconnection of up to 64 minicomputers. Codes detect and correct bit errors in computer data transmission.

Hockenberger, R. W.↗

Effects of amplitude distortions and IF equalization on satellite communication system bit-error rate performance

Satellite communications links are subject to distortions which result in an amplitude versus frequency response which deviates from the ideal flat response. Such distortions result from propagation effects such as multipath fading and scintillation and from transponder and ground terminal hardware imperfections. Bit-error rate (BER) degradation resulting from several types of amplitude response distortions were measured. Additional tests measured the amount of BER improvement obtained by flattening the amplitude response of a distorted laboratory simulated satellite channel. The results of these experiments are presented.

Kerczewski, Robert J.↗

SITE project. Phase 1: Continuous data bit-error-rate testing

The Systems Integration, Test, and Evaluation (SITE) Project at NASA LeRC encompasses a number of research and technology areas of satellite communications systems. Phase 1 of this project established a complete satellite link simulator system. The evaluation of proof-of-concept microwave devices, radiofrequency (RF) and bit-error-rate (BER) testing of hardware, testing of remote airlinks, and other tests were performed as part of this first testing phase. This final report covers the test results produced in phase 1 of the SITE Project. The data presented include 20-GHz high-power-amplifier testing, 30-GHz low-noise-receiver testing, amplitude equalization, transponder baseline testing, switch matrix tests, and continuous-wave and modulated interference tests. The report also presents the methods used to measure the RF and BER performance of the complete system. Correlations of the RF and BER data are summarized to note the effects of the RF responses on the BER.

Fujikawa, Gene↗

Effects of amplitude distortions and IF equalization on satellite communication system bit-error rate performance

Satellite communications links are subject to distortions which result in an amplitude versus frequency response which deviates from the ideal flat response. Such distortions result from propagation effects such as multipath fading and scintillation and from transponder and ground terminal hardware imperfections. Laboratory experiments performed at NASA Lewis measured the bit-error-rate (BER) degradation resulting from several types of amplitude response distortions. Additional tests measured the amount of BER improvement obtained by flattening the amplitude response of a distorted laboratory-simulated satellite channel. This paper presents the results of these experiments.

Kerczewski, Robert J.↗

Bit error rate measurement for evaluation of a fiber optic link

Digital fiber-optic data-link terminal modules are being developed in a number of laboratories, and often the modules take the form of black boxes without convenient access to internal signals. This paper discusses types of measurements which can be made using only the digital terminals of the link. Bit-error-rate (BER) vs signal-power data can, of course, provide a means for proving overall link performance, but it can also be used to determine certain internal parameters of the receiver. The theoretical dependence of the BER-vs-light-signal-power curve shape on receiver input-noise equivalent power and comparator slicing level is discussed. BER-vs-light-signal-power measurements obtained with an experimental link are presented and interpreted with the aid of the theoretical curves. The effects of other problems, such as hum or oscillation, on the BER data are mentioned. Sensitivity of the system BER to bit rate is also discussed, with application to determining system operating limits. Since BER measurements are simple to make and can easily be automated, they may prove to be a useful means for either laboratory evaluation or production-line acceptance testing of sealed terminal modules.

Bergman, L. A.↗

Advanced Communications Technology Satellite (ACTS) Fade Compensation Protocol Impact on Very Small-Aperture Terminal Bit Error Rate Performance

The Advanced Communications Technology Satellite (ACTS) communications system operates at Ka band. ACTS uses an adaptive rain fade compensation protocol to reduce the impact of signal attenuation resulting from propagation effects. The purpose of this paper is to present the results of an analysis characterizing the improvement in VSAT performance provided by this protocol. The metric for performance is VSAT bit error rate (BER) availability. The acceptable availability defined by communication system design specifications is 99.5% for a BER of 5E-7 or better. VSAT BER availabilities with and without rain fade compensation are presented. A comparison shows the improvement in BER availability realized with rain fade compensation. Results are presented for an eight-month period and for 24 months spread over a three-year period. The two time periods represent two different configurations of the fade compensation protocol. Index Terms-Adaptive coding, attenuation, propagation, rain, satellite communication, satellites.

Cox, Christina B.↗

Bit Error Rate and Frame Error Rate Data Processing for Space Communications and Navigation-Related Communication System Analysis Tools

One of the capabilities that the Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) Strategic Center for Networking, Integration, and Communications (SCENIC) user interface (UI) web application intends to provide its users is the addition of network protocol and link encryption augmentations of communication system analyses. Before any of these analyses capabilities can be modeled, the simulations of bit error rate (BER) and frame error rate (FER) against signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) have been conducted, requiring parameters from several known coding types (low-density parity-check (LDPC), convolutional, etc.), signal modulations (binary phase shift keying (BPSK), quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK), etc.), coding rates (1/2, 1/3, etc.), and frame sizes (1,280, 3,580, etc.). However, in order to extract useful information from the results of these simulations, a curve fitting technique has been applied to each resulting dataset to extend and extrapolate the curve fit of BER and FER down to 10–30 using MATLAB® Curve Fitting Toolbox™ (The MathWorks, Inc.). This is a necessary step because simulations of BER and FER were only performed to around 10–9 due to the extensive simulation time that would be required to obtain significant simulation results at the error levels desired. Furthermore, the fitted curve results were applied to a finer resolution for the SNR at 0.01-dB interval instead of the 0.05-dB interval limitation used in the simulation. All the possible combinations of the coding types, signal modulations, coding rates, frame sizes, and the extension of BER and FER curves would enable users to capture a wide range of link performances that directly relates to the addition of higher level networking data encapsulated in a frame. The curve fitting results also led to the modeling of the optical link error rate performance by solving for coding gain, FER_BER SNR delta, coded optical BER-SNR, and coded optical FER–SNR.

Communication link analysis↗

OLCF Summit Supercomputer GPU Snapshots During Double-Bit Errors and Normal Operations

As we move into the exascale era, the power and energy footprints of high-performance computing (HPC) systems have grown significantly larger. Due to the harsh power and thermal conditions the system, components are exposed to extreme operating conditions. Operation of such modern HPC systems requires deep insights into long term system behavior to maintain its efficiency as well as its longevity. To help the HPC community to gain such insights, we provide double-bit errors using system telemetry data and logs collected from the Summit supercomputer, equipped with 27,648 Tesla V100 GPUs with 2nd-generation high-bandwidth memory (HBM2). The dataset relies on Nvidia XID records internally collected by GPU firmware at the time of failure occurrence, on the reboot-time logs of each Summit node, on node-level job scheduler records collected after each job termination, and on a 1Hz data rate from the baseboard management controllers (BMCs) of each Summit compute node using the OpenBMC event subscription protocol. Technical details can be found in the paper Oles et. al “Understanding GPU Memory Corruption at Extreme Scale: The Summit Case Study” ICS’24 (https://doi.org/10.1145/3650200.3656615).

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Bit error probability calculations for convolutional codes with short constraint lengths on very noisy channels

A technique for estimating convolutional code performance on very noisy channels is considered. Specifically, the performance of short constraint length codes operating near the channel cutoff rate is estimated. Decoding convolutional codes with a sliding window decoder (SWD) are considered. This decoder is an optimal (maximum likelihood) symbol decoder as the window size grows toward infinity, while the Viterbi decoder is the maximum-likelihood sequence estimator. The difference in the decoded BERs (bit error rates) between the two decoders is very small and approaches zero asymptotically as the channel BER decreases. Therefore, an estimate on the decoded BER for the SWD can also be used as an estimate of the decoded BER for Viterbi decoding.

Herro, Mark A.↗

Measurements of Aperture Averaging on Bit-Error-Rate

We report on measurements made at the Shuttle Landing Facility (SLF) runway at Kennedy Space Center of receiver aperture averaging effects on a propagating optical Gaussian beam wave over a propagation path of 1,000 in. A commercially available instrument with both transmit and receive apertures was used to transmit a modulated laser beam operating at 1550 nm through a transmit aperture of 2.54 cm. An identical model of the same instrument was used as a receiver with a single aperture that was varied in size up to 20 cm to measure the effect of receiver aperture averaging on Bit Error Rate. Simultaneous measurements were also made with a scintillometer instrument and local weather station instruments to characterize atmospheric conditions along the propagation path during the experiments.

Bastin, Gary L.↗

Accurate Time-Dependent Traveling-Wave Tube Model Developed for Computational Bit-Error-Rate Testing

The phenomenal growth of the satellite communications industry has created a large demand for traveling-wave tubes (TWT's) operating with unprecedented specifications requiring the design and production of many novel devices in record time. To achieve this, the TWT industry heavily relies on computational modeling. However, the TWT industry's computational modeling capabilities need to be improved because there are often discrepancies between measured TWT data and that predicted by conventional two-dimensional helical TWT interaction codes. This limits the analysis and design of novel devices or TWT's with parameters differing from what is conventionally manufactured. In addition, the inaccuracy of current computational tools limits achievable TWT performance because optimized designs require highly accurate models. To address these concerns, a fully three-dimensional, time-dependent, helical TWT interaction model was developed using the electromagnetic particle-in-cell code MAFIA (Solution of MAxwell's equations by the Finite-Integration-Algorithm). The model includes a short section of helical slow-wave circuit with excitation fed by radiofrequency input/output couplers, and an electron beam contained by periodic permanent magnet focusing. A cutaway view of several turns of the three-dimensional helical slow-wave circuit with input/output couplers is shown. This has been shown to be more accurate than conventionally used two-dimensional models. The growth of the communications industry has also imposed a demand for increased data rates for the transmission of large volumes of data. To achieve increased data rates, complex modulation and multiple access techniques are employed requiring minimum distortion of the signal as it is passed through the TWT. Thus, intersymbol interference (ISI) becomes a major consideration, as well as suspected causes such as reflections within the TWT. To experimentally investigate effects of the physical TWT on ISI would be prohibitively expensive, as it would require manufacturing numerous amplifiers, in addition to acquiring the required digital hardware. As an alternative, the time-domain TWT interaction model developed here provides the capability to establish a computational test bench where ISI or bit error rate can be simulated as a function of TWT operating parameters and component geometries. Intermodulation products, harmonic generation, and backward waves can also be monitored with the model for similar correlations. The advancements in computational capabilities and corresponding potential improvements in TWT performance may prove to be the enabling technologies for realizing unprecedented data rates for near real time transmission of the increasingly larger volumes of data demanded by planned commercial and Government satellite communications applications. This work is in support of the Cross Enterprise Technology Development Program in Headquarters' Advanced Technology & Mission Studies Division and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research Small Business Technology Transfer programs.

Kory, Carol L.↗

Real-time minimal bit error probability decoding of convolutional codes

A recursive procedure is derived for decoding of rate R=1/n binary convolutional codes which minimizes the probability of the individual decoding decisions for each information bit subject to the constraint that the decoding delay be limited to Delta branches. This new decoding algorithm is similar to, but somewhat more complex than, the Viterbi decoding algorithm. A real-time, i.e. fixed decoding delay, version of the Viterbi algorithm is also developed and used for comparison to the new algorithm on simulated channels. It is shown that the new algorithm offers advantages over Viterbi decoding in soft-decision applications such as in the inner coding system for concatenated coding.

Lee, L. N.↗