Error Performance of Binary NCFSK in the Presence of Multiple Tone Interference and System Noise

This paper presents a general solution to the problem of calculating the error performance of binary NCFSK systems in the presence of multiple tone interference and system noise. The development uses the concepts of circularly symmetric signals and expresses the results in terms of a Bessel integral. This integral is then evaluated using a rapidly converging Fourier-Bessel series. The error in this approximation to the integral is controlled by two parameters which may be adjusted so that the desired accuracy is attained. It is determined that, in the useful probability-of-error range and when the total tone power is constrained, the error rate increases for an increase in the number of interfering tones. In addition, for equal amplitude tones, the performance is independent of the distribution of the tones within the channel. The technique used is also applicable to other detection problems where the threshold is a random variable.