Performance Assessment of Band-Limited Limiting and Blanking Communication Systems

This paper presents a general formulation of piecewise linear (PWL) models of voltage transfer functions to characterize channel nonlinearities in satellite digital communication systems. This formulation provides a tractable approach to evaluate the performance of such systems with band-limited PWL limiters, channel blanking, and hardlimiters. The envelope characteristics of the PWL models are derived in terms of breakpoints and slopes of PWL segments. Intermodulation (IM) products, their statistical properties, and the resultant error probability performance of such BPSK systems, subject to CW interference, are numerically illustrated through these PWL models.