CPSK, DPSK, and FSK demodulator performance under nuclear stressed conditions

The relative performance of satellite communication links using conventional binary CPSK, DPSK, and noncoherent FSK demodulation techniques is evaluated for a range of simulated highly ionized and striation regions which may result following high attitude nuclear detonations. Performance is characterized by bit error rate estimates obtained through extensive computer simulation of satellite downlinks using various modem designs over a range of data rates and fade rates. Phase fluctuations are shown to be an increasingly dominant performance degrading factor as fade rates increase. The interrelated effect on performance of the fade rate, data rate, carrier removal circuit noise bandwidth, and bit energy-to-noise ratio is examined in detail and a number of performance scaling relationships among these parameters is identified which allows the extensive simulated results obtained here to be generalized to similar modems operating at other data rates and fade rates.