A Simple Measurement Method to Derive the Impulsiveness Correction Factor for Communication Performance Estimation

Today, no simple methods are available for measurements of interference signals that give a proper indication of the impact in terms of the bit error probability (BEP) on a digital radio receiver. Such measure should quantify the corresponding impact and the measurements should be relatively easy to perform. By only using the root mean square (RMS) value of the interference average power the BEP can be underestimated with several magnitudes. To address this problem, an impulsiveness correction factor (ICF) has earlier been proposed to adjust for these errors. The ICF opens up for considerably more accurate BEP estimations whereas the simplicity in the calculations is maintained. However, how to determine the ICF for an arbitrary interference source through measurements has not earlier been known. In this paper, we show that the ICF can be obtained in two alternative ways. One way is to use the measured amplitude probability distribution (APD). The other way is to use the peak- and RMS values from standard measurement detectors. Both methods take the interference waveform properties into consideration and the BEP can thus be more accurately estimated.