IEEE
TRANSACTIONS
ON
COMMUNICATIONS,
VOL.
41,
NO.
3,
MARCH
1993
SIGNAL IN
-
501
DATA OUT
DIGITAL
.
PROCESSOR
ANALOG PROCESSOR
+
Interpolation in Digital
Modems-Part
I:
Fundamentals
Floyd
M.
Gardner,
Fellow,
IEEE
Abstrucf-
Timing adjustment in a digital modem must be
performed by interpolation if sampling is not synchronized to
the data symbols. This paper describes the fundamental equation
for interpolation, proposes a method for control, and outlines the
signal-processing characteristics appropriate to an interpolator.
The material combines a review
of
previously known topics,
presentation of new results, and a tutorial exposition of the
subject.
A
companion paper will treat performance and implementa-
tion.
I.
INTRODUCTION
SAMPLER
SIGNAL IN DATA OUT
DIGITAL PROCESSOR
ANALOG PROCESSOR
0.
ANALOG RECOYCRY
b.
HYBRID
RECOVERY SAMPLING
@--I
TIMING CONTROL
CLOCK
IMING
in a data receiver must be synchronized to
T
the symbols of the incoming data signal. In analog-
implemented modems, synchronization typically is performed
by a feedback loop that adjusts the phase of a local clock,
or
by a feedforward arrangement that regenerates a timing wave
from the incoming signal. The local clock or the timing wave
is used to sample
(or
strobe)
the filtered output of the modem,
once per symbol interval. Message data are recovered from
detection of the symbols.
Implementation of the modem by digital techniques (a topic
of intense present activity) introduces sampling
of
the signal.
SAMPLER
SIGNAL IN DATA OUT
TIMING CONTROL
w
Fig. 1. Timing
CLOCK
recovery methods.
DIGITAL PROCESSOR
ANALOG PROCESSOR
the strobes. Timing of the strobes is adjusted for optimum
C.
DIGITAL RECOVERY
SAMPLING
N
In some circumstances, the sampling can be synchronized
to the symbol rate of the incoming signal; see Fig. l(a)
and (b). Timing in a synchronously sampled modem can be
recovered in much the same ways that are familiar from analog
practice.
In other circumstances, the sampling cannot be synchronized
to the incoming signal. Examples include
1)
digital processing
of unsynchronized frequency-multiplexed signals, or
2)
non-
synchronized digital capture and subsequent postprocessing
of
a signal. For one reason
or
another, the sampling clock must
remain independent of the symbol timing. See Fig. l(c) for a
nonsynchronized-sampling
configuration.
How is receiver timing to be adjusted, by digital methods,
when it is not possible to alter the sampling clock? One answer
is
to
interpolate
among the nonsynchronized samples in such
manner as to produce the correct strobe values at the modem
output-the same strobe values that would occur if the original
sampling had been synchronized to the symbols.
Interpolation is a timing-adjustment operation on the signal,
not on a local clock
or
timing wave. In this respect, it
is radically different from timing adjustment in the better-
known analog modems. Of all the operations in a digitally
implemented modem, interpolation
is
perhaps the one with
the least resemblance to established analog methods.
Several issues arise as follows.
-What mathematical model of interpolation can be de-
-How is interpolation to be controlled?
-What characteristics are desirable in an interpolator for
-How is the interpolator to be implemented?
-What performance can be obtained? How large is the
vised?
modems?
Paper approved by the Editor
for
Synchronization and Optical Detection
of
the IEEE Communication Society. Manuscript received December 6,
1990; revised May 23, 1991. This work was supported under Contract
8022/88/NL/DG by the European Space Agency, Noordwijk, The Netherlands.
This paper was presented at the Second International Workshop on Digital
Signal Processing Techniques Applied to Space Communications (DSP’90),
Politecnico di Torino, Turin, Italy, September 24-25, 1990.
computing burden?
-What conceptual model
is
appropriate for interpolation?
[l].
The first three issues are addressed here in Part
I,
and the
last three in Part
11
[I].
Attention is concentrated On
high-
These
are
the
matters
treated
in
this
paper
and
its
‘Ompanion
me author is with Gardner Research Company, Palo Alto, CA 94301,
‘peed
methods,
defined by
a
hardware-imposed
constraint
that
IEEE Log Number 9208042.
no clock frequency can greatly exceed the signal sample rate.
027&0062/93$03.00
0
1993 IEEE