Experimental and simulated generation of bandlimited noise for communication system bit error rate evaluation

This paper describes an inexpensive approach to experimentally measure and simulate low frequency communication system bit error rates (BERs). A readily constructed bandlimited noise source and a programmable logic based BER test unit enable experimental BER measurements. A technique proposed by Beaulieu and Tan (1999) is used to generate noise samples based on the bandlimited noise source power spectrum. These noise samples are then used to obtain simulated BER curves for comparison and validation of experimental BER curves. This paper includes an example of using the proposed approach to measure the BER performance of a coherent communication system. Initial results demonstrate the utility of this approach.