An innovative synchronization preamble for UHF MILSATCOM

4-ary, multi-h continuous phase modulation (CPM) has been added to MIL-STD-188-181B for dedicated mode UHF SATCOM operation to provide greater throughput capacity for this power- and bandwidth-restricted communications network. The physical layer of the waveform is designed to occupy the entire channel bandwidth at all data rates, optimizing power and spectral efficiency, but presenting challenges for acquisition. As an example, at low data rates the waveform has a 4 dB processing gain relative to binary phase shift keying (BPSK). Hence this waveform is expected to be acquired successfully at an E_b/N ₀ 4 dB lower than that of BPSK. To acquire the CPM waveform, the modem must be capable of acquiring at low signal-to-noise, in the presence of large unknown frequency and timing offsets, and with the band-limiting and hard-limiting channel impairments introduced by the satellite. To promote interoperability and reliability, the Joint Interoperability and Engineering Organization (JIEO) requested a synchronization method that would provide reliable acquisition at an E _b/N₀ corresponding to a 1×10^-3 bit-error-rate and also provide automatic data rate and waveform parameter detection. The resulting preamble achieves the aforementioned objectives and, in addition, is short enough in length to allow it be implemented as the burst preamble for future incorporation of the CPM waveform into the MIL-STD-188-182 and -183 demand assigned multiple access modes of operation. In this paper the design philosophy and implementation of the preamble are presented