An analysis of carrier phase jitter in an M-PSK receiver utilizing MAP estimation

The use of 8 and 16 PSK TCM to support satellite communications in an effort to achieve more bandwidth efficiency in a power-limited channel has been proposed. The authors address the problem of carrier phase jitter in an M-PSK receiver utilizing the high SNR approximation to the maximum a posteriori estimation of carrier phase. In particular, numerical solutions to 8 and 16 PSK self-noise and the amplitude suppression factor in the loop are presented. The effect of changing SNR on the loop noise bandwidth is also discussed. This data is then used to compute variance of phase error as a function of SNR. Simulation data is used to verify these calculations. The results show that there is a threshold in the variance of phase error verse SNR curves that is a strong function of SNR and a weak function of loop bandwidth. The M-PSK variance thresholds occur at SNRs in the range of practical interest for the use of 8 and 16-PSK TCM. This suggests that phase error variance is an important consideration in the design of these systems