On the Rice model of noise in FM receivers

The so-called click-and-Gaussian-noise model for the output of a limiter-discriminator receiver for frequency-modulated signals, first proposed by S.O. Rice in 1963, is reviewed. A short survey is presented of the subsequent research that it generated and of some practical applications that it motivated. A more detailed analysis of parameters encountered in the Rice model is carried out with emphasis on their pertinence to click detection. These results are applied to the understanding of the limitations and to the interpretation of the performance of several noise threshold extension techniques for analog modulations and of error reduction techniques for digital modulations that depend on click detection and elimination