π/2 BPSK (pi/2 BPSK): 5G NR PHY modulation

The 5G New Radio (NR) supports quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK), 16- quadrature amplitude modulation (16-QAM), 64 QAM and 256 QAM modulation schemes for both uplink and downlink [1][2]. This is same as in LTE.

Additionally, 5G NR supports π/2-BPSK in uplink (to be combined with OFDM with CP or DFT-s OFDM with CP)[1][2]. Utilization of π/2-BPSK in the uplink is aimed at providing further reduction of peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) and boosting RF amplifier power efficiency at lower data-rates.

π/2 BPSK

π/2 BPSK uses two sets of BPSK constellations that are shifted by 90°. The constellation sets are selected depending on the position of the bits in the input sequence. Figure (1) depicts the two constellation sets for π/2 BPSK that are defined as per equation (1)

\[d[i] = \frac{e^{j \frac{\pi}{2} \left( i \; mod \; 2\right) }}{ \sqrt{2}} \left[ \left(1 – 2b[i] \right) + j \left(1 – 2b[i] \right)\right] \quad \quad (1) \]

b[i] = input bits; i = position or index of input bits; d[i] = mapped bits (constellation points)

Ideal pi by 2 BPSK constellation as per 3GPP TS 38.211 5G specification odd even bits
Figure 1: Two rotated constellation sets for use in π/2 BPSK

Equation (2) is for conventional BPSK – given for comparison. Figure (2) and Figure (3) depicts the ideal constellations and waveforms for BPSK and π/2 BPSK, when a long sequence of random input bits are input to the BPSK and π/2 BPSK modulators respectively. From the waveform, you may note that π/2 BPSK has more phase transitions than BPSK. Therefore π/2 BPSK also helps in better synchronization, especially for cases with long runs of 1s and 0s in the input sequence.

\[d[i] = \frac{1}{ \sqrt{2}} \left[ \left(1 – 2b[i] \right) + j \left(1 – 2b[i] \right)\right] \quad \quad (2)\]
Figure 2: Ideal BPSK and π/2 BPSK constellations
Figure 3: Waveforms of BPSK and π/2 BPSK for same sequence of input bits

Figure 4, illustrates the constellations for BPSK and π/2 BPSK when the sequence of mapped bits are corrupted by noise.

Figure 4: BPSK and π/2 BPSK constellation for Eb/N0=50dB

Note: Though the π/2 BPSK constellation looks like a QPSK constellation, they are not the same. Give it a thought !!!

References

[1] 3GPP TS 38.201: Physical layer; General description (Release 16)
[2] 3GPP TS 38.211: Physical channels and modulation (Release 16)
[3] Gustav Gerald Vos, ‘Two-tone in-phase pi/2 binary phase-shift keying communication’, US patent number 10,931,492

Rician flat-fading channel – simulation

In wireless environments, transmitted signal may be subjected to multiple scatterings before arriving at the receiver. This gives rise to random fluctuations in the received signal and this phenomenon is called fading. The scattered version of the signal is designated as non line of sight (NLOS) component. If the number of NLOS components are sufficiently large, the fading process is approximated as the sum of large number of complex Gaussian process whose probability-density-function follows Rayleigh distribution.

Rayleigh distribution is well suited for the absence of a dominant line of sight (LOS) path between the transmitter and the receiver. If a line of sight path do exist, the envelope distribution is no longer Rayleigh, but Rician (or Ricean). If there exists a dominant LOS component, the fading process can be represented as the sum of complex exponential and a narrowband complex Gaussian process g(t). If the LOS component arrive at the receiver at an angle of arrival (AoA) θ, phase ɸ and with the maximum Doppler frequency fD, the fading process in baseband can be represented as (refer [1])

\[h(t)= \underbrace{\sqrt{\frac{K \Omega}{K +1}}}_\text{A:=} e^{\left( j2 \pi f_D cos(\theta)t+\phi \right)} + \underbrace{\sqrt{\frac{\Omega}{K+1}}}_\text{S:=}g(t)\]

where, K represents the Rician K factor given as the ratio of power of the LOS component A2 to the power of the scattered components (S2) marked in the equation above.

\[K=\frac{A^2}{S^2}\]

The received signal power Ω is the sum of power in LOS component and the power in scattered components, given as Ω=A2+S2. The above mentioned fading process is called Rician fading process. The best and worst-case Rician fading channels are associated with K=∞ and K=0 respectively. A Ricean fading channel with K=∞ is a Gaussian channel with a strong LOS path. Ricean channel with K=0 represents a Rayleigh channel with no LOS path.

The statistical model for generating flat-fading Rician samples is discussed in detail in chapter 11 section 11.3.1 in the book Wireless communication systems in Matlab (see the related article here). With respect to the simulation model shown in Figure 1(b), given a K factor, the samples for the Rician flat-fading samples are drawn from the following random variable

\[h= | X + jY |\]

where X,Y ~ N(μ,σ2) are Gaussian random variables with non-zero mean μ and standard deviation σ as given in references [2] and [3].

\[\mu = g_1 =\sqrt{\frac{K}{2\left(K+1\right)}} \quad \quad \sigma = g_2 = \sqrt{\frac{1}{2\left(K+1\right)}}\]

Kindly refer the book Wireless communication systems in Matlab for the script on generating channel samples for Ricean flat-fading.

Figure 1: Simulation model for modulation and detection over flat fading channel

Simulation and performance results

In chapter 5 of the book Wireless communication systems in Matlab, the code implementation for complex baseband models for various digital modulators and demodulator are given. The computation and generation of AWGN noise is also given in the book. Using these models, we can create a unified simulation for code for simulating the performance of various modulation techniques over Rician flat-fading channel the simulation model shown in Figure 1(b).

An unified approach is employed to simulate the performance of any of the given modulation technique – MPSK, MQAM or MPAM. The simulation code (given in the book) will automatically choose the selected modulation type, performs Monte Carlo simulation, computes symbol error rates and plots them against the theoretical symbol error rate curves. The simulated performance results obtained for various modulations are shown in the Figure 2.

Figure 2: Performance of various modulations over Ricean flat fading channel

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References

[1] C. Tepedelenlioglu, A. Abdi, and G. B. Giannakis, The Ricean K factor: Estimation and performance analysis, IEEE Trans. Wireless Communication ,vol. 2, no. 4, pp. 799–810, Jul. 2003.↗
[2] R. F. Lopes, I. Glover, M. P. Sousa, W. T. A. Lopes, and M. S. de Alencar, A simulation framework for spectrum sensing, 13th International Symposium on Wireless Personal Multimedia Communications (WPMC 2010), Out. 2010.
[3] M. C. Jeruchim, P. Balaban, and K. S. Shanmugan, Simulation of Communication Systems, Methodology, Modeling, and Techniques, second edition Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2000.↗

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Constellation diagram – investigate phase transitions

The phase transition properties of the different variants of QPSK schemes and MSK, are easily investigated using constellation diagram. Let’s demonstrate how to plot the signal space constellations, for the various modulations used in the transmitter.

Typically, in practical applications, the baseband modulated waveforms are passed through a pulse shaping filter for combating the phenomenon of intersymbol interference (ISI). The goal is to plot the constellation plots of various pulse-shaped baseband waveforms of the QPSK, O-QPSK and π/4-DQPSK schemes. A variety of pulse shaping filters are available and raised cosine filter is specifically chosen for this demo. The raised cosine (RC) pulse comes with an adjustable transition band roll-off parameter α, using which the decay of the transition band can be controlled.

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Digital Modulations using Matlab : Build Simulation Models from Scratch, ISBN: 978-1521493885
Digital Modulations using Python ISBN: 978-1712321638
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The RC pulse shaping function is expressed in frequency domain as

Equivalently, in time domain, the impulse response corresponds to

A simple evaluation of the equation (2) produces singularities (undefined points) at p(t = 0) and p(t = ±Tsym/(2α)). The value of the raised cosine pulse at these singularities can be obtained by applying L’Hospital’s rule [1] and the values are

Using the equations above, the raised cosine filter is implemented as a function (refer the books Digital Modulations using Python and Digital Modulations using Matlab for the code).

The function is then tested. It generates a raised cosine pulse for the given symbol duration Tsym = 1s and plots the time-domain view and the frequency response as shown in Figure 1. From the plot, it can be observed that the RC pulse falls off at the rate of 1/|t|3 as t→∞, which is a significant improvement when compared to the decay rate of a sinc pulse which is 1/|t|. It satisfies Nyquist criterion for zero ISI – the pulse hits zero crossings at desired sampling instants. The transition bands in the frequency domain can be made gradual (by controlling α) when compared to that of a sinc pulse.

Figure 1: Raised-cosine pulse and its manifestation in frequency domain

Plotting constellation diagram

Now that we have constructed a function for raised cosine pulse shaping filter, the next step is to generate modulated waveforms (using QPSK, O-QPSK and π/4-DQPSK schemes), pass them through a raised cosine filter having a roll-off factor, say α = 0.3 and finally plot the constellation. The constellation for MSK modulated waveform is also plotted.

Figure 2: Constellations plots for: (a) a = 0.3 RC-filtered QPSK, (b) α = 0.3 RC-filtered O-QPSK, (c) α = 0.3 RC-filtered π/4-DQPSK and (d) MSK

Conclusions

The resulting simulated plot is shown in the Figure 2. From the resulting constellation diagram, following conclusions can be reached.

  • Conventional QPSK has 180° phase transitions and hence it requires linear amplifiers with high Q factor
  • The phase transitions of Offset-QPSK are limited to 90° (the 180° phase transitions are eliminated)
  • The signaling points for π/4-DQPSK is toggled between two sets of QPSK constellations that are shifted by 45° with respect to each other. Both the 90° and 180° phase transitions are absent in this constellation. Therefore, this scheme produces the lower envelope variations than the rest of the two QPSK schemes.
  • MSK is a continuous phase modulation, therefore no abrupt phase transition occurs when a symbol changes. This is indicated by the smooth circle in the constellation plot. Hence, a band-limited MSK signal will not suffer any envelope variation, whereas, the rest of the QPSK schemes suffer varied levels of envelope variations, when they are band-limited.

References

[1] Clay S. Turner, Raised Cosine and Root Raised Cosine Formulae, Wireless Systems Engineering, Inc, (May 29, 2007) V1.2↗

In this chapter

Digital Modulators and Demodulators - Passband Simulation Models
Introduction
Binary Phase Shift Keying (BPSK)
 □ BPSK transmitter
 □ BPSK receiver
 □ End-to-end simulation
Coherent detection of Differentially Encoded BPSK (DEBPSK)
● Differential BPSK (D-BPSK)
 □ Sub-optimum receiver for DBPSK
 □ Optimum noncoherent receiver for DBPSK
Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK)
 □ QPSK transmitter
 □ QPSK receiver
 □ Performance simulation over AWGN
● Offset QPSK (O-QPSK)
● π/p=4-DQPSK
● Continuous Phase Modulation (CPM)
 □ Motivation behind CPM
 □ Continuous Phase Frequency Shift Keying (CPFSK) modulation
 □ Minimum Shift Keying (MSK)
Investigating phase transition properties
● Power Spectral Density (PSD) plots
Gaussian Minimum Shift Keying (GMSK)
 □ Pre-modulation Gaussian Low Pass Filter
 □ Quadrature implementation of GMSK modulator
 □ GMSK spectra
 □ GMSK demodulator
 □ Performance
● Frequency Shift Keying (FSK)
 □ Binary-FSK (BFSK)
 □ Orthogonality condition for non-coherent BFSK detection
 □ Orthogonality condition for coherent BFSK
 □ Modulator
 □ Coherent Demodulator
 □ Non-coherent Demodulator
 □ Performance simulation
 □ Power spectral density

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MPSK modulation: simulate in Matlab & Python

A generic complex baseband simulation technique, to simulate all M-ary phase shift keying (M-PSK) modulation techniques is given here. The given simulation code is very generic, and it plots both simulated and theoretical symbol error rates for all MPSK modulation techniques.

M-ary phase shift keying (M-PSK) modulation

In phase shift keying, all the information gets encoded in the phase of the carrier signal. The M-PSK modulator transmits a series of information symbols drawn from the set m∈{1,2,…,M}. Each transmitted symbol holds k bits of information (k=log2(M)). The information symbols are modulated using M-PSK mapping.

Figure 1: Signal space constellations for various MPSK modulations

The general expression for a M-PSK signal set is given by

Here, M denotes the modulation order and it defines the number of constellation points in the reference constellation. The value of M depends on the parameter k – the number of bits we wish to squeeze in a single MPSK symbol. For example if we wish to squeeze in 3 bits (k=3) in one transmit symbol, then M = 2k = 23 = 8 and this results in 8-PSK configuration. M=2 gives binary phase shift keying (BPSK) configuration. The configuration with M=4 is referred as quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK). The parameter A is the amplitude scaling factor. Using trigonometric identity, equation (1) can be separated into cosine and sine basis functions as follows

This can be expressed as a combination of in-phase and quadrature phase components on an I-Q plane as

Normalizing the amplitude as , the points on the reference constellation will be placed on the unit circle. The MPSK modulator is constructed based on this equation and the ideal constellations for M=4,8 and 16 PSK modulations are shown in Figure 1.

Matlab code

Full Matlab code available in the book Digital Modulations using Matlab – build simulation models from scratch

function [s,ref]=mpsk_modulator(M,d)
%Function to MPSK modulate the vector of data symbols - d
%[s,ref]=mpsk_modulator(M,d) modulates the symbols defined by the
%vector d using MPSK modulation, where M specifies the order of
%M-PSK modulation and the vector d contains symbols whose values
%in the range 1:M. The output s is the modulated output and ref
%represents the reference constellation that can be used in demod
   ref_i= 1/sqrt(2)*cos(((1:1:M)-1)/M*2*pi);
   ref_q= 1/sqrt(2)*sin(((1:1:M)-1)/M*2*pi);
   ref = ref_i+1i*ref_q;
   s = ref(d); %M-PSK Mapping
end

Python code

Full Python code available in the book Digital Modulations using Python

modem.py: PSK modem - derived class
class PSKModem(Modem):
	# Derived class: PSKModem
	def __init__(self, M):
		#Generate reference constellation
		m = np.arange(0,M) #all information symbols m={0,1,...,M-1}
		I = 1/np.sqrt(2)*np.cos(m/M*2*np.pi)
		Q = 1/np.sqrt(2)*np.sin(m/M*2*np.pi)
		constellation = I + 1j*Q #reference constellation
		Modem.__init__(self, M, constellation, name='PSK') #set the modem attributes
.
.
.

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Digital Modulations using Python ISBN: 978-1712321638
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M-PSK demodulation (coherent detection)

Generally the two main categories of detection techniques, commonly applied for detecting the digitally modulated data are coherent detection and non-coherent detection.

In the vector simulation model for the coherent detection, the transmitter and receiver agree on the same
reference constellation for modulating and demodulating the information. The modulators generate the reference constellation for the selected modulation type. The same reference constellation should be used if coherent detection is selected as the method of demodulating the received data vector.

On the other hand, in the non-coherent detection, the receiver is oblivious to the reference constellation used at the transmitter. The receiver uses methods like envelope detection to demodulate the data.

The IQ detection technique is an example of coherent detection. In the IQ detection technique, the first step is to compute the pair-wise Euclidean distance between the given two vectors – reference array and the received symbols corrupted with noise. Each symbol in the received symbol vector (represented on a p-dimensional plane) should be compared with every symbol in the reference array. Next, the symbols, from the reference array, that provide the minimum Euclidean distance are returned.

Let x=(x1,x2,…,xp) and y=(y1,y2,…,yp) be two points in p-dimensional space. The Euclidean distance between them is given by

The pair-wise Euclidean distance between two sets of vectors, say x and y, on a p-dimensional space, can be computed using the vectorized code. The vectorized code returns the ideal signaling points from matrix y that provides the minimum Euclidean distance. Since the vectorized implementation is devoid of nested for-loops, the program executes significantly faster for larger input matrices. The given code is very generic in the sense that it can be easily reused to implement optimum coherent receivers for any N-dimensional digital modulation technique (Please refer the books Digital Modulations using Matlab and Digital Modulations using Python for complete simulation code) .

Matlab code

Full Matlab code available in the book Digital Modulations using Matlab

function [dCap]= mpsk_detector(M,r)
%Function to detect MPSK modulated symbols
%[dCap]= mpsk_detector(M,r) detects the received MPSK signal points
%points - 'r'. M is the modulation level of MPSK
   ref_i= 1/sqrt(2)*cos(((1:1:M)-1)/M*2*pi);
   ref_q= 1/sqrt(2)*sin(((1:1:M)-1)/M*2*pi);
   ref = ref_i+1i*ref_q; %reference constellation for MPSK
   [˜,dCap]= iqOptDetector(r,ref); %IQ detection
end

Python code

Full Python code available in the book Digital Modulations using Python

Performance simulation results

The simulation results for error rate performance of M-PSK modulations over AWGN channel and Rayleigh flat-fading channel is given in the following figures.

Figure 2: Error rate performance of MPSK modulations in AWGN channel

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Reference

[1] John G. Proakis, “Digital Communciations”, McGraw-Hill; 5th edition.↗

Related Topics

Digital Modulators and Demodulators - Complex Baseband Equivalent Models
Introduction
Complex baseband representation of modulated signal
Complex baseband representation of channel response
● Modulators for amplitude and phase modulations
 □ Pulse Amplitude Modulation (M-PAM)
 □ Phase Shift Keying Modulation (M-PSK)
 □ Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (M-QAM)
● Demodulators for amplitude and phase modulations
 □ M-PAM detection
 □ M-PSK detection
 □ M-QAM detection
 □ Optimum detector on IQ plane using minimum Euclidean distance
● M-ary FSK modulation and detection
 □ Modulator for M orthogonal signals
 □ M-FSK detection

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