SPECTRAL EFFICIENCY AND DETECTION EFFICIENCY OF DIGITAL MODULATION FOR AERONAUTICAL MOBILE TELEMETRY

This article examines the use of linear modulations with bandwidth efficient pulse shaping to in- crease spectral efficiency beyond the spectral efficiencies of the IRIG 106 modulations PCM/FM, SOQPSK-TG, and ARTM CPM. An emphasis is placed on modulations that have been described in past ITC Proceedings. The analysis incorporates the peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) together with the fact that aeronautical mobile telemetry systems use fully-saturated RF power amplifiers on test articles. Using the peak signal-to-noise ratio instead of the average signal-to-noise ratio to measure detection efficiency, the results show that relative to the IRIG 106 modulations, improved spectral efficiency is achieved at the cost of detection efficiency.