522
6 , JUNE 1986
Maximum Likelihood Carrier Phase Recoverv for
Linear Suppressed-Carrier Digital Data
Modulations
PO01 YUEN KAM,
Abstract-The problem of ML estimation of the phase of a general
data-modulated carrier is considered. The shortcomings of current
iterative approaches to, the problem are pointed out, and the correct
conceptual approach is proposed. The true ML estimator is then obtained
and found tobe,nonimplementahle. However,.hy specializing to limits of
high and low SNR, the general ML estimator is shown to reduce to
implementable DA and NDA ML estimators, respectively. The DA
receiver's performance in terms of phasetrackingand symbol error
probability can be analyzed, and even the effects of past decision errors
on current system performance can be assessed. For circular signal
constellations, the D A receiver has a simple and totally linear structure
which is easy to implement. The NDA ML estimator is shown to be
equivalent to the common carrier loops. Our emphasis here on explicit
computation of the ML phase estimate'from the past receivedsignal leads
to detection strategies which
. .
do not require a carrier loop and a VCO for
coherent detection.
I. INTRODUCTION
T HE most powerful approach to the design of acarrier
phaserecoverysystemforcoherentdetection of linear
suppressedsarrier digital data modulated signals is to treat
the
carrier phase 8 as an unknown and nonrandom parameterand
apply the theoryof maximum-likelihood(ML)parameter
' in data detection are obtained both in the absence and in the
estimation. While this approach has been applied often, the
existingresults are not entirelysatisfactory because these
designs have all been based on iterative techniques for
likelihood function maximization. Atpresent, the carrier
tracking loop approach'[1]2[3] and the stochastic approxima-
tion approach [4], [ 5 ] , [lo] appear to be the main iterative
maximization techniques used. Although these iterativemeth-
ods might lead to simple implementations, they actually do not
produce the true ML estimate 8. Instead, only a sequence of
trial estimates of 8 is generated as observations are made on
the .received signal. Thus, it can be said that the true ML
estimator of carrier phase is still unknown.
The prime motivation of our work here is to rectify the
present situation with ML 'carrier recovery. We propose the
idea of Endinganexplicitexpressionfor the ML phase
estimate 8 in terms of the past received signal. This approach,
as we will see, is the properway of maximizing thelikelihood
function. The design of a receiver employing the true' ML
phase estimate 8 for coherent data detectionis thus achieved.
We must caution the reader that our aim here is
not to derive a
carrierrecovery
strategy
which offers
improvements in
performance or simplificationsin implementation compared to
existing methods. Rather, the main contribution here lies in
Paper approved by the Editor for Digital Communications of the IEEE
Communications Society. ManuscriptreceivedSeptember 6, 1984; revised
January 3, 1986. This paper was presented at Globecom '85, New Orleans,
LA, December 1985.
The author iswiththeDepartment of ElectricalEngineering,National
University of Singapore, Kent Ridge, Singapore 0511.
IEEE Log Number 860851 1.
.OO O 1986 IEEE
0090-6778/86/06OO-0522$01
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON COMMUNICATIONS, VOL. COM-34, NO.
. I r
MEMBER, IEEE
showingthecorrectconceptualapproach toML carrier
recovery. This approach, aswill be seen, leads to new results
and greater insights into the carrier recovery problem which
are not possible with the existing iterative approaches.
In Section 11, starting with agenerallinearsuppressed-
carrier data modulated ,signal, the ML estimator of carrier
phase is obtained in ternis of the received signal overthe
immediate past M symbol intervals. The result is seen to be
nonimplementable. Our aim in Section 111 is therefore to find
implementable approximations to the ML estimator by special-
izing to limits of high and low SNR (signal-to-noise ratio). In
the high SNR limit the ML estimatorreduces to an implement-
able DA (decision-aided) ML estimator, while for low SNR it
reduces to an implementable NDA (non-decision-aided) ML
estimator. The workof Section 111thus places into perspective
the roles of the well-known DA and NDA carrier recovery
strategies which have been applied variously in the past [l],
[2], [1 11 and treated as distinct approaches to the problem. The
NDA ML estimator is shown to be equivalent to the common
carrier loops, and we clarify the relationships between existing
carrierloopdesigns.Thereceiver using a DA MLphase
estimator isstudied in detail in Section IV. Here, performance
results on phase tracking and symbol 'error probability(SEP)
presence o f ' past decisionerrors. An additional important
result for the DA receiver is. that foracircularsignal
constellation, the'receiver is completely linear and leads to a
very simple implementation. This makes the DA strategy all
the more attractive for important practicalsignal formats such
as PSK (phase-shift keying). To our knowledge,all the results
and even the analysis approaches of Section IV for the DA
receiver are novel. Section V concludes with a discussion of
the NDA receiver.
11. ML CARRIER RECOVERY
We consider a general linear carrier-modulated datasignal
received with anunknownphaseshift in additive white
Gaussian noise (AWGN). For the kth signaling interval [kT,
(k + 1) T ) ( T = symbol duration), this received signal can be
represented by the sufficient statistic (see Fig. 1) .
r( k)= rn (k) exp ( j e )+ n (k). (1)
Here, m(k) is the random (realor complex) data modulation,8
istheunknownnonrandom camer phase, and n(k) is a
complex Gaussian random variable(CGRV) with E [ n ( k ) ] =
0 and E[I n(k)I *] = Nodue to*e AWGN. The quantity r(k)is
obtained from the received signal by demdulating with a local
carrier exp ( j u t ) ,followed by matched-filteringwith g( T - t)
<
(where g ( t ) , 0 t c T, is the possibly complex data pulse
with J l g ( t ) g * ( t ) d t = I), and then sampling at t = (k +
1) T. (* denotes conjugate.) From [4], [SI,[7], it is clear that
{ r(k)} is a set of sufficient statistics for detecting { m(k)} and
estimating 8. The generality of the signal model (1) has been
discussed in [ 11, [4], [SI. We assume a signal constellation
 KAM: MAXIMUM LIKELIHOOD CARRIER PHASE RECOVERY 523

ESTIMATOR nonimplementable. Inthe next

section_,
we shall derive
w = CARRIER RADIAN FREQUENCY
rik)
COMPUTE : implementable approximations by which b(k) can be obtained
WMPLER &kl VIAI61,CASEIII
t=lk+IlT 3 ~iklVIAi8l.CASEl21
explicitly in terms of { r ( I ) } f ~ i - ~
6iklVlAl9I.CAsEl31 Having obtained the ML phase estimate e(k) explicitly, the
receiver usesit in the detection of the kth data symbol m(k) as
DEMODUMTTOR
if it were the true value0. Thus, conditioned on thehypothesis
THREE CASES :
I1I DA
STRATEGY
m(k) = CL,the receiver treatsr(k) in (1) as a CGRV given by
I21 OA STRATEGY,
CIRCULPR CONSTELMTION r ( k ) = C, exp (jO(k)) + n(k). Thereceiver achieves
ATEGY (31 NOA
(partially) coherent detection by
computing the decision
IN C n s E S l f i S l 3 1 .
statistics
OR q;VlAllOllN
-CENOTES COMPLEX SIGNAL F L W CAK12I,L=Zl.. ,:N
& ( k , B(k))=qL(k,8(k))-S,, L=+l, * * * , +N
(4)
where qL(k, &k)) = (2/F0) Re [ r(k)C z e - j g ( k ) ] , and declaring
Fig. 1. Receiver structure with ML carrier recovery that m(k) = Ci if Qi(k,0(k)) = max, QL(k, a(/?)).
We depote
the receiver’s decision by A(k). The explicit result for 0(k)
allows the decision statistics QL(k,0(k)) in (4) to be computed
with an even number of points, i.e., m(k) E { CL, -N < L and makes coherent detection possible without having to build
< N,L # 0 } . All symbols are equiprobable, and the signal a loop toadjust the phase of a VCO. This allows acompletely
points are arranged such that CL = - C - L .Such constella- digital receiverimplementation. A decisionon the Ith data
tions are common and leadtosuppressed-carriersignal symbol can be made in the kth symbol interval, where I < k,
formats. An important special case is the circularconstellation in the same way as above using the decision statistics
in which I C L ( = E for all L . Also, m(k) and m(1) are
independent for k # 1. qL(I, B(k))=qL(l, 8(k))-SL, L = + l , *.., + N
At each time t = kT, we want an ML estimate a(k) of the
carrier phase 0 based onthe received signal overthe (5)
immediate past Mintervals, i.e., based on r(l ), k - M < I < where q L ( I , 8(k)) = (2/N0) Re [r(I ) C_L*e-j8(k)]_ We denote
k - 1, where M (an integer) is a design parameter. Symbol such a decision by &(Ilk). Obviously, if 0(k) = 0(1) for k -
timing is assumed known, and 0 is taken to be timeinvariant at M < I < k - 1 and SNR is high, we would almost always
least over an interval longerthan MT. The likelihood function have &(Ilk) = &(I ). In the sequel, for k - M < I < k x 1,
A(0, k ) is given by the joint pdf (probability density function) we will assume &(I1 k ) = A(I ) since the assumption that 0(I )
p ( r ( k - M ) , . - ., r ( k - l ) ( 0 ) [ 7 ] . Note that r(1) and r( j ) = &k), i.e., the phase estimate varies slowly, would be true
are independent by independence ofn(1) and n( j ) , I # j . The in practice if SNR is highand 0 is time-invariant over an
pdf &(I ) 10) is obtained by writing it as the sum over all L of interval much longer than MT.
p ( r ( I ) l 0 , m(I) = C L ) P ( m ( l )= CL). The log-likelihood
111. .IMPLEMENTATION OF ML CARRIER
PHASEESTIMATOR
function L(0, k ) = In A(0, k ) can now be shown to be
Although there are various ways for derivingimplementable

1
approximations to the ML estimator (3), we concentrate here
k- I
k)=
L(0, In exp ( - S L ) cosh q L ( l , e) +c. onthe highandlow SNR casessince theylead to readily
l=k-M implementable results which are important in practice.
(2) Consider first the high SNR limit. For this case, we show
that decision-feedback provides a nearly optimum implemen-
Here SL = I CLJ 2 / N o ,q L ( I , 0) = (2/N0)Re (r(I )C,*e-J’), tation of the ML estimator (3). This is easiest to see in the case
and c is a constant independent of 0. The likelihood equation of binary antipodal signals (N= 1) where (3) reduces to

[ ]
aL/a0 = 0 at-0 = 0(k) leads to the following equationfor the
k- I
ML estimate 0:
Im [ r ( l ) f i * ( l ) ]
k- 1 8(k)= arctan ‘gy (6)
cos 8 ( k ) Re [ r ( l ) f i * ( l ) ]
/=k-M
since-tanh x = sgn x for x large and reference to (5) gives sgn
q1(1, 0(k)) = sgn &(Ilk) = sgn &(I), where A(/) = C , or
- CI.(We assume CI is real.) For signalconstellations with N
> 1, the argument is similar. For each fixed I in (3), each of
the summations overL is dominated in magnitude by the term
whose index correspopds to the decision. For instance, I X=:
exp (-- SL) sinh q L ( I , e(k)) Im [ r ( l ) C , * ]1 = Jexp ( - Si) sinh
k- I
qi(l, 0(k)) Im [ r ( l)CT]I if the decision is either &(Ilk) = Ci
=sin 8(k) or &(Ilk) = - Ci. Thus, (3) reduces again to (6) when tanh
l=k-M
( - ) is replaced by sgn and A(1lk ) by &(I ). The decision-
( e )

N feedback approximation is, of course, more accurate forN =

. exp ( - S L . ) sinh q L ( l , & k ) ) Re [r(l)C,*l 1 than for N > 1 . For N > 1, the accuracy of the
L=l approximation depends on the “discriminability”between the
N . (3) signal points CL’s,which improves with higher values of SNR
exp ( - S L ) cash q L ( l , 8(k)) SL’S.
L=l It is more convenient to rewrite (6) as

This equation is highly nonlinear and an explicit solution for

0(k) is impossible. TheML phaseestimator is therefore
5 24 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON COMMUNICATIONS, VOL. COM-34, NO. 6, JUNE 1986

where, treating a complex number z as a vector [Re z, Im z ] I CI1 # I Cz12. For N 2 3, the numerator would have
from here on. additional terms in cos 28 and the denominator terms in sin 28.
This results in general in a degradationin the estimation of 28
k- 1 via ( 9 ) , the degree of degradation being dependent on the
~ ( k ) [ t ( k ) , s^(k)]=U - ’ ( k ) r ( f ) f i * ( f ) (8) geometry of the signal points ,and theSNR SLof each point. In
/=k-M general, (9) fails fora signal constellation in which Ciexp (j d
2)is also a signal point forevery signal point Ci-the
and U(k) = I & ( / ) I 2 . The quantities [E(k), $(k)] are, numerator and denominator vanish in the absence of noise.
respectively, the in-phase and quadrature-phase(I-Q) outputs
This includes all the 2N-phase PSK (where N = 2’, i an
of the receiver. It can be shown that E{ [E(k), $(k)] } = [ c , s]
integer)and such important constellations as 16- and 64-
provided allthe decisions are correct( & ( I ) = m(1) for all I ) , QAM. The result corresponds to the fact that a square law
and that E[(E(k) - c ) ~ = ] E[($(/?)- s ) ~=] (2U(k)/N0)-I 4
recovery circuit fails for signals with statistically balanced I
(2p(k))-I. In the form (7), itisclear that the *-radian
and Q components [ 1I ] . For the 2N-phase PSK signals, a non-
ambiguity of the arctan function is resolved by the signs of
ML proceduresuch as the nth-power loop( n = 2 N ) [3] or the
&k) and $(k). This, of course,assumes that in the initial
transformation procedure of Viterbi [9] can be used. How-
training period a known data sequence is sent; otherwise the ever, these non-MLprocedures all lead to ar/N-radian
ambiguity cannot be resolved.
ambiguity in the recovered phase. The DA ML estimator (7)
That decision-feedback is the nearly optimum strategy for would be a betterrecoverystrategy than such non-ML
carrier recovery at high SNR has also been arrived at in [4], proceduresfor all theseconstellationsforwhich (9) fails.
[ S I , [ I O ] . The result (7) is new in that these previous designers Finally, the NDA ML estimator (9) suffers from a x-radian
have allchosentoimplementthe maximization of the ambiguity problem in contrast to the DA case. Although the
likelihood function using a stochastic approximation algorithm ambiguity of the arctan in (9) can be resolved by the signs of
or a data-aided carrier loop which does not produce the true the numerator and denominator, the estimate 20(k) can be in
ML estimate of 8 as we have noted before. Although the DA error by f 27r, resulting in the ?r-radian ambiguity in
estimators (6) and (7) are only approximate ML estimators,
they become the actualoptimum
e(/?).
computing
solution if the carrier occasional training sequence.
This ambiguity can be resolved by an
recovery problemis constrained atthe outset to be the DA ML Fig. 1 summarizes the receiverstructure and the signal
estimation of 8. processingoperations involved in the DAand NDA ap-
Consider next thelow SNR case.Here, we use the proaches. Comparison of (6) and (9) indicates that the DA
approximations sinh x = x and cosh x = 1 for small x , and the estimator has less computational requirements than the NDA
ML estimator (3) easily reduces to estimator.
2&k) = arctan
IV. THE DA RECEIVER
The DA receiver is optimum for high SNR, which is the
case of most interest in practice.
A . Implementation
For a general signal constellation, computation of 8(k) via
(7) and (8) is required for coherent detection and the Ieceiver
where zL(l) = r(I )C,*. Thisestimator (9) is an NDA requires an arctan nonlinearity. Thiscomputation for B(k).can
estimator, and leads to familiar carrier recovery structures if be avoided if the signal constellation is circular. For in this
implemented in the fom-of a loop, i.e., if a system is built to case, the decision statisticsQL(kr8(k))in (4) can be reduced to
generate thesignal tan 28(k) according to(9) and this signal is
fed as input to adjust the phase of a VCO once every MT q t ( k , B(k))=r(k)C;2* u ( k ) , L = k l , * * * , *N.
seconds. For N = 1, e.g., BPSK, this implementation gives
rise to the tanlock loop discussedin [I21 which has a tangent- (10)
function “S-curve” or phasedetectorcharacteristic.
make a further appro_ximation andbuild a loopwith VCO input
Ifwe
Here, cL
= CL/lCLI, and . denotes the inner productof two
vectors. The receiver is now totally linear, consisting of the
signal equal to sin 28(k) given by the numerator aloneof ( 9 ) ,
linear estimator(8) for u(k)and the linear computatiocs for the
we get the well-known Costas’ loopwhich is equivalent to the
qL(k, 8(k))’sin (10). Instead of the phase reference O(k), the
squarer/PLL(phase-lockedloop).For signal constellations
receiver now calls for establishing the signal vector reference
with N > 1, we canregard (9) asdictating a generalized
tanlock loop or Costas’loop.The tanlock loop was first 4 k).
proposed as an improved synchronizer over the conventional B. Ideal Phase Tracking Performance
PLL, since its tangent S-curve has an extended linear range
compared to the sine S-curve of the latter. We have shown In the ideal case of no past decision errors, thepdf p(+(k))
low SNR approximation to of the phaseerror + ( k ) = 0 - 8(k) can be established by
here that the tanlock loop is a better
the MLestimator than the Costas’loop or squarer/PLL. observing that u(k) = [2(k),$(I?)] is Gaussian with mean [ c ,
Franks in [l] has shown that the Costas’ loop is an approxi- s] and covariance matrix diag [(2p(k))-’].Converting to polar
mate ML phase estimator, but he assumes the modulating coordinates (R(k),8(k))and integrating out R(k) gives the pdf
message to be a Gaussian randomprocess which is not p(8(k))which turns out to be purely a function of +(k).This
accurate for digital data. Also, itis not apparent from [I] that gives the pdf in the well-known form
the approximation is goodonly for low SNR. Note that if the
carrier loop is implemented incorporating the arctan nonlin-
earity of (9) so that 28(k) is the input signal to the VCO, the
p ~ k )= ) 5 exp [ - ( X ’ + P ( k )
07r
resulting loop S-curve is linear.
The numerator and denominator of (9) can be considered - 2xp’”(k) COS 4(k))] dX, l4(k)l T. (1 1) <
estimates of sin 28 and cos 28, respectively. For N = 1, this is
strictly true sincethe former quantities reduce to the latter onesFrom ( l l ) , we get E[+(k)] = 0, Le., 8(k) is unbiased.
in the absence of noise. The same is true for N = 2 provided However, it is not efficient, since it can be shown using (7)
KAM:MAXIMUM LIKELIHOOD CARRIER PHASE RECOVERY 525

TABLE I
COMPARISON OF PHASE ERROR VARIANCE oi(k) WITH THE
CRAMER-RAO BOUND

2 ? ,dB a,21k) C R B1 = ~

15 0.032719 0.031623
16 0.0257 9 4 0.0 251 1 9
17 0.020370 0.019953
18 0.016108 0.015849
19 0.012757 0.012589
20 0.010107 0.010000

and (8) in (2) and assuming decision-feedbackthat aL(8, k)/a8 of the erfc ( e ) function using results in [8, Appendix I]. Thus
isproportional to sin (8 - 8(k)). The lower bound onthe we get
phase error variance az(k) given by the Cramer-Rao bound
(CRB) is ai(/?) 2 (2p(k$)-I. For high SNR p ( k ) 00, we can
+

show that ai(k) = (2p(k))-’ by yonsidering E[cos 4(k)] using

(11) (E[cos 4(k)] = 1 - E[?d2(k)]canbeexpressedas
modified Bessel functions using [6, eq. (73), (74)1andthen
approximated in terms of_p ( k ) for high SNR using [7, eq.
(F.1.4), p. 3941). Thus, 8(k) is asymptotically efficient. An
exact infinite series expression forai(k) can be obtained from With (14b),theBEP (bit error probability)of the DA
(1 1), and allows az(k)to be computed. Table I compares the receiverfor N = 1canbecompareddirectlyto that of
exact numerical vafues of a,( k ) with the CRB approximation. coherentBPSKgivenby P ~ ( E )= 1/2 erfc(E/NO)’l2 [7].
The results show the rapid convergence of ui(k) to the CRB. Clearly, the receiver performance can be made to approach
Note that (2p(k))-I is the linearized varianceof the ML phase that of the coherent one by increasing M . An upper limit to
estimate of an unmodulated carrier [ 111. this again is imposed in practice due topossible time variations
For a circular signal constellation, we can write in 8.
For N = 1, Table I1 shows remarkable agreement between
theBEPexpressions (14a) and (14b) evenfor moderate
SNR’s. Fig. 2 shows the computed values of BEP for N = 1
where B = ( M T ) - ’ is the estimator bandwidth and W = T-I from (14a) and ofSEP forN = 2 and N = 4 from(13) for two
isthe message bandwidth.Clearly,jittervariancecanbe values of M together with their respective coherent detection
reduced as in all carrierloops by decreasingestimator performance (i.e., coherent four-phase and eight-phase PSK,
bandwidth B or increasing M . In fact, (12) gives: 8(k) 5 8 as respectively) obtained from [3]. The results show an approach
M + 00. In practice, however, 8 can vary with time and a to coherent detection performance as M increases.
sufficient bandwidth B must be allowed for phase tracking. From (lo), the DA receiver for circular signal constellations
Thus, M must bechoseninacompromise between jitter canbeinterpreted as ageneralized differentially coherent
variance and tracking response rate. detector. For M = 1 and N > 1, PN(e)in (13) reduces to [6,
eq. (44)], theSEP expressionfor differentially coherent
C. Ideal SEP Performance detection of 2N-phase differential PSK (DPSK). For M = 1
Under the ideal condition ofno past decision errors, the and N = 1, we can apply [6, eq. (9), (lo)] and obtain PI(€) =
SEP of the DA receiver can be evaluated for the case of a exp ( - E/No), the BEP for binary DPSK. These results
circular signal constellation, although not for general noncir- substantiate our interpretation.
cular signal constellations. The DA receiver requires a sequence ofM known symbols
Referring_to the decision statisticsin (lo), if m(k) = CI,the for startup to initialize the estimator ( 8 ) , and thereafter the
vector r(k)CTwould make the smallest angle with u(k) in the receiver will be in steady state with performance givenby
absence of noise. A decision error would result only if the (12),(13), and so on.Thus, To = MT isour system
noise n(k) in %e received vector r(k) is such that the angle $ acquisition time, andusually it is desirable to keep this interval
between ~ ( kCT ) and u(k) exceeds d 2 N in magnitude. From short. System design therefore requires a good compromise
(l), r(k)C; = E’/’[c, s] + A(k) conditioned on m(k) = CI, choice of M tooptimize steady-state performance while
and assuming all decisionscorrect (8) gives u(k) [ c , s] + simultaneously achieving fastacquisition and providing suffic-
(ME)-l*CFii-, n ( l ) f i * ( l ) .Here, A(k) =-n(k)Crand n(k) ient bandwidth for tracking.
are identically distributed. Thus, both r(k)C$and u(k) consist
of deterministic vectors perturbed by Gaussian noise, and the D. Performance Loss Due to PastDecision Errors
distribution of the angle J. between them has been studied in We consider first N = 1. The presence of pastdecision
[6]. Applying [6, eq. (9), (ll)], the SEP PN(e) forM 2 2 is errorshere serves only toreducethe magnitudeof the
given by deterministic component of u(k) and leads to a decreasein its
W xz ,-[LI-Rcosx] SNR (terminologyof [6]). Theanalysisfollows that of
dx (13) Subsection C.
2n x1 [ U - R cos x ]
Assume first thatM > 2 and that there areL ( <M / 2 ) errors
where W = M1lzE/N0, U = ( M + 1)E/2No, R = [~Mcos’ in the past M bit intervals so that u(k) has a deterministic
( r / 2 N ) + ( M - 1)2]1’2.E/uVo, X I = - ( ~ / 2 ) - 4, x2 = component (1 - ( 2 L / M ) ) [ c ,s] and the same noise compo-
(7r/2) - 4, 4 = arctan [ ( M - 1)/(2M1’2 cos (1~/2N))].The nent as in Subsection C; its SNR is_((M - 2L)z/M)(E/N~).
integral in (13) can only be evaluated numerically in general. Conditioned on m(k) = C1,r(k)C;r remains the same as in
For N = 1, e.g., BPSK, it can be evaluated in closed form in Subsection C. Depending onM and L , u(k) will-have an SNR
terms of Rice’s le(. , .) function [8] using [6, eq. (C-2)]. A greater thanor equal to or less than thatof r(k)C;Fwhich isE/
convenient high SNR approximation can be obtained in terms No.Applying [6, eq. (9)-(1 1)] and the same procedure that led
526 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON COMMUNICATIONS,
NO, COM-34. VOL. 6 , JUNE 1986

T A B L E I1 phase tracking, the same pdf p(+(k))as in (1 1) is obtained

COMPARISON OF APPROXIMATE WITH EXACT ERROR RATE EXPRESSION except that the SNR p ( k ) is reduced to ((M - 2 L ) 2 / M ) ( E /
FOR BPSK No).The effect of decision errors here is merely to cause an
PI(€)EXACT P1(E)APF’RO)(IMATE increase in jitter variance and a spreading out of the pdf curve
P(+(k)).
0.024988 0.024573 If M is even and L = M / 2 , the recovered reference u(k)
0.007791 0.001726 has a specular component of zero. Therecovered carrier phase
0.002549 0.002526 8(k) and, hence, the phase error +(k)are purely ranqom, i.e.,
0.000852 0.00 0845 uniform over [ - T , T ) . The BEP is thus P,”(c) = 7 .
7.78 0.000289 0.000287 For L > M / 2 , the specular component (1 - ( 2 L / M ) ) [ c ,
8.4 5 0.000099 0.000099 s] of u(k) and that of the received vector r(k)cT,i.e., E ’ / 2 [ c ,
9.0 3 0.000034 0.000034 SI, are now at an angle A+ = 7r (notation of [6]). The same
9.54 0.000012 0.0 0 001 2 analysis using [6, eq. (9)-(1 l)] readily gives the BEP now as
0.023498 0.023374 P,‘“(E)= 1 - P{(E).This result is not surprising since the
0.013078 0.01 3021 recovered phase &(k)is now‘‘locked’’ around x , and a
4.77 0.007377 0.007349 “rurhway” is likely. The event L > M / 2 , however, has an
5.44 0.004201 0.004187 extremely small probability for sufficiently large M a n d E/No.
5.91 0.002692 0.002684 If the system does not have any mea_ns of checking a
“
runaway,” the BEP would be since B(k) can sometimes
COHERENT “lock” around 0 and sometimes around T in the long run. The
__-__
~

M = SO method for checking a “runaway” will partly determine the

M =10
BEP of the receiver.
\
For circular signal constellations with N 2 2 , the analysis is
much more complicated because first there is more than one
type of decision error; for instance, if N = 2 and m(k) = Cl,
a decision error results if &(k) = - C1 or &(k) = f C2.
Then, the effect of each decision error on u ( k ) in general is to
produce an additional specular component orthogonal to [ c ,
s] , causing the specular component of u ( k ) to make a nonzero
angle ACP with the specular component of r(k)CT. Conditioned
on a decision error of a given type, the SEP can be obtained
using [6, eq. (9)-(ll)]. Finally, the SEP conditioned on one
decision error is obtained by taking the mean over all possible
types of decision errors, and the result can be obtained only
numerically in general. Similarly,the tracking performance of
8(k) can be analyzed as in Subsection B. Because of the
additional specular component orthogonal to [ c , SI, the phase
error +(k)will now have a nonzero mean. w e will not pursue
here the case of N 2 2 any further other than to present this
analysis approach.

V. THENDA RECEIVER
The implementation of the NDA receiver is strictly nonlin-
ear since (9) requires an arctan nonlinearity for computing
B(k). Alternatively, (9) can be implemented as a carrier

- 16
SNRL , dB
No
18
tracking loop involving a VCO for coherentdetection, leading
to the familiar carrier recovery structuresas discussed in
Section 111. The SEP performance cannot readily be analyzed
except by making assumptions such as +(k) is a GRV and
using numerical integration. Such an approach has been used
Fig. 2. Error probabilities for BPSK, QPSK, and 8-phase PSK with DA ML by Stiffler for BPSK. See [I 11. The tracking performance of
carrier recovery.
(9) canbe analyzed for N = 1 assuming high SNR. The
to (14b), we get the BEP numerator noise X noise term has mean zero and variance
1
p ;( E ) =- e - E / N o , (M-2L)2=M (154
2

22 [ I - (M-2L)Z
] erfc );( , (IW-~L)~>M

Note that (15b) reduces to (14b) if L = 0. For reasonably
large M , (15) shows that the DA receiver for N = 1 is rather
insensitive to the presence of one or two errors in the past M
bits. Thus, the probability of a “runaway.” i.e., past errors
causing even more subsequent errors,. isextremely small. For
(No/2)2,and the denominator(noise)2 - (noise)2termhas
mean zero and variance x.For high SNR or small No, the
effects of these noise terms are small compared to the signal
and signal X noise terms, and we will simply assume that the
former are Gaussian. The numerator and denominator of (9)
KAM: MAXIMUM LIKELIHOOD CARRIER PHASE RECOVERY
are then independent GRV’s, and applying the procedure
which leads to (12) gives the high SNR phase error variance
This result is the same as that of Franks [ 11, eq. (7.14)] for
BPSK with squarer/PLL carrier recovery, provided his loop
bandwidth is identified as our estimator bandwidth ( M T ) - l .
The NDA ML estimator (9) is thus asymptotically efficient in
the high SNR limit, since ai(/?)converges to the CRB. Note
that Franks employed a completely differett set of assump-
tions than ours in arriving at (16). The term S i = [ 1 + (&T/
No)-’]in (16) represents the additional jitter variance of th~e
NDA estimator compared to the DA estimator. SL is called the
squaring loss [3], and it .arises from the noise X noise and the
(noise)* - (noise)2 terms of (9).Based on (16), which shows
that the NDA receiver for BPSK has nearly the same phase
tracking performance as the DA receiver athigh SNR [not true
if the data pulse g ( t ) # 0 outside [0, T ) ] ,one would also
expect the NDA receiver to have roughly thesameBEP
performance as the DA receiver at high SNR. The validity of
this. statement, of course, remains to be verified.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Theauthor is grateful to the Associate Editor and the
reviewers for their comments and suggestions.
REFERENCES
[l] L. E. Franks, “Camer andbit synchronization in data communica-
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[2] M. H. Meyers and L. E. Franks, “Joint carrier phaseandsymbol
timing recovery for PAM systems,” IEEETrans. Commun., vol.
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[3] W. C. Lindseyand M. K.’ Simon, Telecommunications Systems
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[4] H. Kobayashi, “Simultaneous adaptive estimationanddecision al-
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D. D. Falconer and J . Salz, “Optimal reception of digital data over the
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B. Hirosaki, “A maximum-likelihood receiver for anorthogonally
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Pooi Yuen Kam (”83) was born in Ipoh, Malay-
sia, on April 12, 1951. He received the S.B., S.M.,
and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineeringfrom the
Massachusetts Instihte of Technology, Cambridge,
in 1972, 1973, and 1976, respectively.
From 1976 to 1978, hewas a memberofthe
Technical Staff at Bell Laboratories, Holmdel, NJ,
where he was involved in packet-network studies.
Since 1978, hehasbeenwiththeDepartmentof
Electrical Engineering, National University of
Singapore, Kent Ridge, where he is now a Senior
Lecturer. H e has been involved in teaching courses in communication theory
and systems as well as mathematics. His research interests are in stochastic
processes, detection and estimation theory, and their application to various
problems in communications.
Dr. Kam is a member of Tau Beta Pi, Eta Kappa Nu, and Sigma XI.