Detection of CPM signals in fast Rayleigh flat-fading using adaptive channel estimation

Differential detection techniques, which are commonly used in fast fading environments, are characterized by an irreducible error rate that increases with fading rate. The main source of this error floor is the phase error introduced by the multiplicative fading process. The paper describes a detection technique for continuous phase modulation (CPM) that employs decision feedback carrier recovery and adaptive channel estimation. This receiver was evaluated by software simulation and the results show a substantial reduction of the error floor relative to that of differential detection. Furthermore, in additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channels, the adaptive nature of the receiver allows it to perform close to ideal coherent detection of differentially encoded phase shift keying (DE-CPSK)