Performance evaluation of differential and discriminator detection of continuous phase modulation

Recently, bandwidth efficient constant-amplitude digital modulation schemes have also been shown to be power efficient when coherent detection is used. Partial-response continuous phase modulation (CPM) schemes are within this class. In some applications noncoherent detection is preferred. The performance of CPM systems is analyzed for differential and discriminator detection. An additive white Gaussian channel is assumed. The detectors make symbol-by-symbol decisions. The considered schemes are M-ary with an arbitrary modulation index and pulse shaping over several symbol intervals. The performance is analyzed by means of error probability expressions. The IF filter for the detectors is optimized within a special class of filters to give good performance. The differential detector is also analyzed on a Rayleigh fading channel. The fading is assumed to be slow. The IF filter is also optimized on this channel. Simulated error probabilities for discriminator detection with a Viterbi detector are also presented both for the Gaussian and the Rayleigh fading channel. The discriminator detector making symbol-by-symbol decisions is simulated on the Rayleigh fading channel. It is shown that partial-response CPM schemes with good performance can also be obtained with noncoherent detectors.