Symbol Error Probabilities for M-ary CPFSK: Coherent and Noncoherent Detection

Continuous-phase frequency shift keying (CPFSK) is discussed and theoretical predictions for symbol error probabilities are derived, where the memory inherent in the phase continuity is used to improve performance. Previously known results concluded that binary CPFSK can outperform coherently detected PSK at high SNR. New results presented here show that -ary CPFSK outperforms more tranditionally used -ary modulation systems. Specifically, coherently detected quaternary CPFSK with a five-symbol interval decision can outperform coherent QPSK by 3.5 dB, and octal coherent CPFSK with a three- symbol decision can outperform octal orthogonal signaling by 2.6 dB at high SNR. Results for coherently detected and noncoherently detected CPFSK are derived. These performance improvements are estimates derived from symbol error probability upper bounds. Monte Carlo simulation was performed which then verified the results.