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I'm simulating tranmission via power line communications (PLC) using BPSK. Due to the coupling circuit and slightly inductive nature of the line, the BPSK signal received is far from ideal. In the first plot below, you can see the source data at the top, the encoded BPSK signal in the middle, and the received BPSK signal at the bottom.

enter image description here

This non-ideal Rx BPSK signal is presenting a number of challenges with decoding, for example, carrier reconstruction and phase synchronization based on squaring the signal can't be done easily, as the squared signal has a wildly varying amplitude.

enter image description here

I'm looking for suggestions as to:

a) Achieving carrier reconstruction and phase synchronization with this non ideal signal or

b) A non-coherent strategy that doesn't require carrier reconstruction. (maybe differential QPSK?)

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  • $\begingroup$ I would start by using pulses shaping to reduce the signal's bandwidth, followed by equalization. $\endgroup$
    – MBaz
    Commented Apr 10 at 22:38
  • $\begingroup$ Can you elaborate on what you mean by pulses shaping to reduce the signal's bandwidth? Thanks $\endgroup$
    – mr_js
    Commented Apr 11 at 7:27
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    $\begingroup$ dsp.stackexchange.com/q/6206/11256 $\endgroup$
    – MBaz
    Commented Apr 11 at 14:50

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It is not typical to transmit rectangular pulses as it results in a much wider spectrum than is necessary, resulting in poor spectrum efficiency and more susceptibility to group delay distortion across the bandwidth.

Assuming that the wider bandwidth is not a concern here (and I don't actually see that the OP's resulting waveform is distorted to the point where a simple demodulation can't be performed) then squaring the signal for carrier recovery would certainly be doable for the OP's case. The resulting squared signal does have a lot of amplitude variation, but notably will have a much stronger and well defined second harmonic (that would be very clear by evaluating the FFT of the squared output). The job to complete carrier recovery is to filter 2nd harmonic output and then divide the resulting signal by two. A common approach for filtering with such "squaring loops" is to phase lock a clean 2nd harmonic oscillator. This is effectively what becomes a very narrow auto-tuning bandpass filter (where-as a fixed filter would fail if the carrier offset exceeded the fixed bandwidth).

Another approach that is ultimately more compact (and more common) is a "Costas Loop" as shown in the diagram below, which should also work just fine with the OP's waveform as is. This can be implemented in the analog domain with a Voltage Controlled Oscillator (VCO) as shown, or as a direct digital loop using an Numerically Controlled Oscillator (NCO). The low pass filters shown are "matched filters", so in the OP's case with rectangular pulses would be an integration over the symbol duration $T$ (and can be optimized to match that actual pulse shape due to the coupling circuit, but a simple "Integrate and Dump" would be sufficient for initial operation: where the multiplier outputs are summed or accumulated over the duration of one symbol and the final value selected as the "dump" value for each symbol and the accumulators then reset for the next symbol).

BPSK Costas Loop

I detail the NCO operation in DSP.SE #37803. Observe how we can extend the Costas Loop to QPSK (and QAM if we change the decision blocks from two-level as shown below for QPSK, to instead be multi-level as needed for QAM):

enter image description here

A complete digital implementation for BPSK, QPSK and QAM showing the loop filter as a "PI Loop Filter", and the NCO as a counter with a sine and cosine lookup table (which in a simulation the counter output is scaled be phase as $2\pi n/N$ with $n=0,1, \ldots N-1$, and the lookup tables are a computation of the I and Q outputs as $I+jQ = e^{j\phi}$.)

QAM demodulator

What isn't shown but also important is the job of Timing Recovery. The recovered timing clock is what would be used to reset and dump the accumulators if "integrate and dump" filters are used in the Costas Loop.

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  • $\begingroup$ Thanks for your comprehensive input. I'm actually aware of the Costas loop and other techniques. My problem is getting them to work on non-ideal signals. Reducing the bandwidth by not transmitting square waveforms should be a help. In this case, raised cosine filters are more relevant... $\endgroup$
    – mr_js
    Commented Apr 15 at 10:56
  • $\begingroup$ @mr_js I do not see any reason why the Costas loop would not work with your waveform, and as I noted there is no real issue with your doubled waveform; you will see very similar effects after squaring a bandwidth reduced waveform and have to proceed the same way (filter or better PLL lock) when using a doubling loop. So if you are concerned about the bandwidth you are transmitting- then this is the reason to reduce it, otherwise you're not far with what you have to make the receiver work. $\endgroup$ Commented Apr 15 at 12:26

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