Error Rates on a Data Link with Nonlinear Regeneration

A model of nonlinear data wave regeneration without retiming is analyzed. Attention is focused on performance after regeneration and subsequent detection. The communication model consists of a pseudoternary signal that is regenerated at one data station, but not retimed prior to retransmission to another station. The signal regeneration is accomplished by a three-level slicer, and this nonlinear transformation degrades the overall system performance in the presence of noise. The extent of this degradation is our subject matter. The formulation and analysis are constructed so that one can put to effective use the fact that, for a certain Gaussian process, one can give definite expressions for the chance that its sample paths lie below a piecewise linear curve on an appropriately restricted time interval. We are able to use events of this type to give upper and lower bounds for the error rate. The bounds are compared with the error rate that would have been obtained had detection been accomplished before the nonlinear regeneration. We hope that the techniques employed here may be of use in other nonlinear communication problems.