Demodulation of a Continuous PM Signal Contaminated with Incidental AM Discrete Phase-Lock

This paper analyzes the problem of communication from phase-modulated (PM) satellite transmitters which usually exhibit some degree of incidental amplitude modulation (AM). Hybrid analog-digital demodulator structures for this type of signal are presented using results of nonlinear estimation theory. It is shown that the structure of the optimal demodulator is nonlinear in nature. Hence, first- and second-order approximations are employed to yield physically realizable phase-lock loop structures. Such algorithms are applicable at sampling instants and linear predictory relationships between sampling instants are derived.