среда, 4 ноября 2009 г.

SA: work with OFDM module, FFT spectrum. Tutorial part II.

OFDM module, FFT spectrum. Tutorial part II.
Let's consider new abilities of SA OFDM module in version 6.1.0.3.

In the description of the previous version and in the first part of OFDM module tutorial, we have mentioned "the magic triangle", and have defined, that detection of this triangle says, that the analyzed signal belongs to OFDM class with CP. We have also concerned the bases of OFDM creation principles, and we had also have defined, that the triangle is closely linked with the transferred OFDM symbol. Let's go further, Let's take a view on the triangle more attentively.



For start we will consider schematically structure of the magic triangle, and we will try to understand, why only triangle shape is the right sign and What is so good in it? As i was already spoken, the magic triangle - it is known result of correlation of two equal rectangles, but nevertheless, we will look hardly more deeply on this triangle. Here seven is(conditional) main steps of results of calculation of correlation, we assume that LS and LG are received precisely.

It is perfectly visible, that the triangle's peak precisely points on an absolute coincidence of controll LS and LS of the signal. So It is perfectly visible that the triangle left-hand side "tells" us: that LU of the controll window window of LS, has completely entered into LS of the signal(It is very importent momemnt). Increasing of the amplitudes (rising) of the left-hand side of the triangle shows to us that: the controll LU is closer and closer to it's "native position" in LS.

Right side of the triangle says that: the controll LU, does not get any more completely in the signal's LS, and it goes away further and further, thereupon right side becomes not valuble for analysis. It is impoertent to to understand why the left side is good for analysis , and right is not good. We do not want that the user thoughtlessly would place the marker on "the good side" without understanding why it should be so and what hiddens behind it.

Ок, let's look on CP (LG), what does CP give?

CP increases length of the symbol, by so much countings, how many for CP is taken. What in general it means? As CP it is a copy of a part of the end of OFDM symbol, CP possesses very important property, it "is fastened" in the beginning of the symbol precisely in the phase. Here follows awesome conclusion:
The quanitity of correct LU values is not just one in the symbol with CP.

Quanitity of the correct LU = LG+1.

More visually it looks so:


It allows us to use LU freely enough at the analysis, because any LU, which we receive on "the good" side of the triangle, is basically correct.
Let's move to practice now. I will only mark that, for getting quantity of channeles and their amplitudes, all LU are equal. We will check up everything, as well as it is necessary, on an ideal signal. Let's synthesise for example such test signal.


Everything, what has been told earlier, is approved.

Move the specified slider and be convinced that "the good side" is really good, and that it's lengh takes precisely LG size, and that on this side all channels, which are entering into LU have stable amplitude and location.

Certainly you will notice that the real signals, behave a bit differently than an ideal ones, but you will also notice that the negative triangle does not promise anything good, and that it is useless to search for anything on "the bad side of triangle", because there simply nothing to search for. You will see, that, in general, all OFDM signals with CP submit to the common laws, considered by us that. Thus as soon as the marker leaves "the good side", FFT spectrum starts to behave strange, unpredictable etc.

Let's consider some practical nuances:

Please Pay attention, on the field LU (FFT Size) = X, where is X - os the FFY block sizeFT, or size of LU in countings. On real signals, X can be any. Actually, only the even size can be considered as the correct. Odd size of LU says that, sampling rate, or signal's shift by frequency, or all that have together led to the fact, that LU precisely lays down on odd quantity of countings of sampling rate. It is not forbidden, but it is not correct. Althogh, even in this case, the program works, as we use FFT algorithm working with any quantity of countings.

Why the yellow marker sometimes is a one pixel thick, and sometimes it is rather wide bar? Here all is very simple:
The size of LS is not limited formally, there can be signals both with LS=20 and with LS=2000, and for more comfortable observation of "the magic triangle", the map is scaled, and sometimes, there are 20-30 or more of countings in one pixel, in this case, then the marker is a thin line, and sometimes one counting is expanded on several pixels, and then the marker is wide.

You can consider the results of spacing and speed of manipulation as correct or atleast very close to real ones only, in case when:
1 - your triangle is motionless at symbol-by-symbol moving,
2 - LU is even,
3 - peak is positive

Otherwise it is necessary to speak about conditional enough accuracy.

Actually, you will notice that OFDM signals, allow rough enough inaccuracies. The very good spectra can be seen even at the big errors, moreover, it is also possible to receive the quite good constellations in the channels, but it concerns only to relative sorts of manipulation. The absolute constellations in channels, such as QAM, demand very serious measures of bringing on parametres of a signal to true ones. But this is already future...for now I suggest to be mastered with this tool SA OFDM module, this tool allows to do very many things, for example, like this:



It is DAB signal. FFT spectrum of this signal do not fit into the mapping window of the module on my screen monitor:) You do not have chances to receive exact pricese parametres of this signal by another way. SA allows to get pricese parameters.

Good luck~

воскресенье, 1 ноября 2009 г.

Version 6.1.0.3: SA OFDM Module expansion.

SA update to version 6.1.0.3

In version 6.1.0.3 we continue to expand possibilities of SA OFDM module.


New components are added in the module(new components are selected with red color), old ones are moved to more convenient positions. The general view of the module:


Description of the new elements:

1 - regulation of FFT image scale by vertical

2 - moving of FFT image

3 - shift/displacement of the whole signal, for the fast correction of inaccurate position of the signal on frequency. Accuracy is in 1 hrz.

4 - regulation of FFT image scale by horizontal. The regulation is discrete.

Other elements are same as in previous version.

Detailed description:


The working window is divided into two parts.

Top part: is intended for output of the image of a correlative triangle and the various additional information. It is also used for exact positioning of the signal's LS concerning to the marker (the yellow line in the middle).

Bottom part: for output of image of FFT spectrum.

Let's consider the common example of operation with the new elements of OFDM module.

Let’s take an already known signal DRM from our site. As we already know, clock frequency of manipulation is about 37 Hertz, thus it is possible to reduce strongly time of calculations, by having installed lower limit of speed at search of LS and LG at 36-37 a Hertz, and upper limit at 38-39.



"The magic triangle" has two sides, left is the "good one", right is the "bad one" (an explanation of this feature will be described in the OFDM module tutorial part II).

Here we consider the common approaches.

For this purpose that Operation FFT would be spent really over "correct" LU, it is necessary to locate the signal so, that the marker would be situated or on "the good" side or exactly on the peak.

Actually, it is better to locate the signal on the middle of the good side.

For exact positioning of the signal concerning to marker, it is simply necessary to click on point of a slope of the triangle, and the signal automatically will be taken up into needed position. For position specification, it is possible to do smaller steps in hand-held, through the left and right buttons of the slider of moving on a signal.



After the signal will be exposed in the necessary:

to regulate view of FFT image,

to correct signal's shift by maximum of the triangle's peak

and, in general, to estimate that purely it has turned out.

The main purpose of all these operations is to receive FFT picture of representation LU of a part of the symbol, this part is pure information itself. Moving on the signal symbol-by-symbol, we can learn a lot of interesting and useful information. For example:

how many frequencies are used in the concrete symbol,

how many of them are used in general

and others undetectable before/earlier things.


For example, on this signal to learn: how many channels are used, we need to count them in hand-held, or to use special markers to count them. If precisely to take place on the most left frequency of FFT image, and to make double cliques, this frequency will be marked by two (cliques double) markers; now, if to click precisely on the most right frequency, one of markers "will go" into it.

In the window of correlative triangle it is possible to read, how many frequencies are between the markers, what are the frequencies for the lower channel and for the upper one, what common spectrum is occupied with working channels and etc.

Concerning to this signal as result we have :

1)in total, there are 229 working channels

2)there are three, from them, which are located exactly on centre are not used( it is visible on all symbols) from the remained 226 channels, there are three more are pilots-tones.

Thus 223 channels participate in information transmission. The signal’s spectrum occupies the bar in 9500 Hrz. In reality, it is a bit wider, as the channel is not a line, the line is in frequency area after FFT and this line is only for one symbol, instead of whole signal in time.

Taking into account, all information from the previous update SA to version 6.1.0.0/1 and article SA - operation with OFDM module, these new tools are certainly essentially expand possibilities of analysis OFDM in SA. Detailed tutorial about how to use new possibilities of SA OFDM module, and further development and improvement of SA OFDM Module will appear soon.

Good luck~

воскресенье, 25 октября 2009 г.

MPSK: QMAC signal.

MPSK, 30-th Ch, Br~43.1, Sh~53-54, + 1 Ch as synchro

Author: SergUA6
Band Width 2000 Hz
Low Range ~400 Hz, shift is possible.
Baud Rate ~43.1 Hz
n-Ary (PSK/MPSK) PSK-8(pi/4 DQPSK)
Count of Carriers 20+10+1
Step between carriers ~53-54 Hz
RX mode SSB


Sonograms:

pic.1 General view


pic.2 Speed in the channel


pic.3 Detalization

Diagrams:

pic.4 Phase constellation in the channel


QMAC - it is well known enough bar of HF equipment. There is an example of it's work in the record. The signal is multichannel, with obvious separating of channels. It is not classical OFDM signal, although, at first view it looks similar to OFDM. The signal has bright enough features. The record is made in mp3 format initially, so the quality of the record is so-so, it could be better.

пятница, 23 октября 2009 г.

Signals Analyzer: 2 license keys for the price of 1.

I guess this information will be usefull : everyone is able to get SA two license keys for the price of one.


Since Jule(2009), after purchasing the first SA license key, we send the second SA license key free of charge. Since the most part of users, as a rule, have two working computers.

I'v decided publish this information in my blog, because still most of people do not know about this ability to get 2 keys for the price of 1.

It is official information from our official site.

Sincerely yours, Maria and MSM Group.

четверг, 22 октября 2009 г.

Signals Analyzer: SA - OFDM module detailed tutorial. Part I.


This tutorial is intented to help with solving difficult enough tasks of OFDM analysis.
The purpose of this tutorial - is to show what is possible to learn/understand/define with the help of current implementation of SA OFDM module and small "magic triangle":).



From this SA OFDM module tutroial you will know:

  • how to define the magic OFDM triangle
  • how to recognize the right one triangle, in case, when there are several triangles in the signal
  • when triangle can be negative and what does it mean
  • what the correct "magic triangle" should look like
  • specifics of "behavour" of the correct "magic OFDM triangle"
  • and more interesting and usefull features for effective analysis of OFDM signals with help of SA OFDM module.




Soon the second part of OFDM module tutorial will appear.

Yours sincerely, Maria and MSM Group.

воскресенье, 18 октября 2009 г.

The unqiue OFDM module is added: Signals Analyzer updated. version 6.1.0.0/1.



In SA version 6.1.0.0/1 OFDM module is added. New SA OFDM module is the unqiue tool, which do not have analogues.



The detailed description of OFDM module is available in our site. Click here to read detailed OFDM module tutorial.

This tutorial is "must read", it is short, but infromative description of princples of OFDM analysis and principles of work with SA OFDM module.

Everyday more OFDM signals are appearing, and they are always problematical for the analysis. SA OFDM Module is intented to help and greatly simplify the analysis of OFDM signals.

From our description of version 6.1.0.0/0 You will know:
  • basics and princples of OFDM analysis
  • structure of OFDM signals
  • "Magic traingle" as the sign of OFDM presence
  • how to recognize "Magic triangle"
  • easy steps of how to use OFDM module
  • the results of SA OFDM module work.
Current implementation of SA OFDM module is only the first step in this direction. Further we will expand and develop OFDM module to receiving of constellation of the separate channel, to compensation of inaccuracies of sampling rate and displacement by frequency, and if it ill be possible, to OFDM module full automation of putting to rights parameters of record.

We are also planning to write very detailed and usefull article about work in SA OFDM Module, because possibilities of SA OFDM module are great, and some part of very vexed questions(which are often discussed on forums), can be easily enough solved with SA OFDM module help.

Sincerely, Maria and MSM Group.

четверг, 15 октября 2009 г.

What is signals analysis? And why the signals must be analyzed?


What is signals analysis? What is it nessecary for? Why is it not possible to use decoders without analysis of the signals?


Author: SergUa6 and other MSM Group members.

We receive many letters with such questions, despite the fact, that the answers to these questions are stated in number of our articles, we have decided to make this short, but informative article. Okay, let's begin from start.

Everyone who has receiver heard not clear sounds and strange signals, and each time there is the question what is it? Only extremely small amount of people can exactly identify these signals and sounds for sure. While most number of people still suppose, that the only one way to identify the signals it is their ears. This is an absolute error.

Let's consider "analysis by ear" on the real examples and situations.

Examples of What is impossible to do by "ear-analysis":
  • to distinguish OFDM with 20th channels from OFDM with 18 channels
  • to hear the difference between OFDM with manipulation speed 50 and 45
  • to differ PSK from QAM
  • to distinguish PSK-8 from PSK-4
  • to hear the difference between GFSK from MSK
  • to distinguish FSK with speed 1200 from PSK with speed 1200
  • to distinguish MFSK-32 from MSFSK-30
  • ear can't exactly define that frequency spacing is 110 for example, instead of 100
  • You can't distinguish MFSK-64 from MFSK-60 by ear

I can endlessly countine this list of the real and widespread situations ,where "ear-analysis " fails and simply doesn't work.

Ofcourse it is possible to distinguish CW from RTTY by ear, same as we can differ male and female voice and etc. But it is better to close the question about abilities of ear-analysis. With each day there are more and more digital signals and protocols are appearing, already for today there are more then thoudands types of them, and all that can't be identified and analyzed by "ear-analysis". Let's leave for ears things which are ment for them: music, speech, CW.

We were surprised by the fact that there are people, who believe in "ear-analysis", mostly that part of people believes that there are only two types of the signals: CW and RTTY. Thus, "ear-analysist" name everything what is not getting under these two cathegories as "digit" type.

The main function of the signals analysis - is exact and precise definition of parametres of a signal, such as: speed, sort of manipulation and much more. That allows to identify the signal absolutely precisely and authentically.


pic.1 Function of Signals Analysis

The picture 1 shows the purposes and the place of analysis. To us it is well-known that many people ignore the analysis basically, because they believe that decoders "will understand" and decode any signal and even unknown sound. Probably many people from those who are reading this article, got into situation when the decoder program produces random set of digits or characters. And there are no ways to understand what are the reasons for it, and how much authentic is this set of characters and digits or is it simply random trash?

I don't think that i'm opening the big secret: but all decoders work only with that type of signals, for which these decoders were specially created. In case if the signal has another parameters, like different speed, or another modulation, or any other parameteres from the expected ones, then even best decoder can't realize it's functions and don't decode anything.

Ofcourse the good decoder program has customised parametres, but how it is possible to expose/specify the parametres, if they are not defined precisely or not even known at all? And where is a guarantee, what you try to decode some correctly identified signal, instead of absolutely another?

The good analyzer will help with solution of all these problems:
  • with precise definition of parametres of the signal
  • with identification of the signal
  • with a choice of the suitable decoder, for any signal which you have accepted/have written.
pic.2

As it is well-visible from picture 2: it is impossible to decode any sound and signal without Signals Analysis.

The analysis itself is not so hard as it may seem at first look, but it requires training and learning as any other professional or hobby sphere. It is same situation when : as soon as you learn how to read books at school - you open another interesting world, while illiterate person do not even know about existence of such world.

But if to meet the illiterate person today is uncommon thing, to meet "ear-analyst" is the very usual situation, althought "ear-analysis" is very similar to illiteracy:)

MSM Group is applying all best efforts and doing all possible and also impossible, to help everyone who wants to become engaged into signals analysis and develop their skills in that direction.

Good luck!