Relation between the amplitude probability distribution of an interfering signal and its impact on digital radio receivers

New emission limit requirements are needed to protect digital communication systems from radiated interference. Traditionally, standard emission requirements have focused on protecting analog amplitude modulated radio services. However, developments in digital technology require emission limit requirements adapted to protect digital radio communication services. The amplitude probability distribution (APD) of the envelope or the quadrature components of an interfering signal has been shown to be related to the bit error probability of some digital radio receivers. However, a general description of the APD of an interfering signal and its impact on digital coherent radio receivers has not been presented. The aim of this paper is to clarify this relationship for a larger group of digital radio receivers. A method of incorporating the APD in conventional error expressions developed for digital coherent radio receivers in additive white Gaussian noise is presented. Furthermore, the relation between the maximum error probability for different digital modulation schemes and the APD is described, which allows definition of emission requirements on the APD