A scheme for high performance real-time BER measurement

A statistically based method of bit error rate (BER) which does not necessitate the transmission of test patterns or the interruption of data for measurement purposes is presented. It is demonstrated that the method allows accurate estimation of BER several orders of magnitude faster than the Monte Carlo method. Design of an optimal BER estimator based on the maximum-likelihood principle is proposed. The performance of the technique is demonstrated by simulations for the case of QPSK modulation in AWGN and for a live Rayleigh-fading HF link. The ability of the method to accurately predict BER using relatively few samples means that it is particularly suitable for high-speed BER estimation.<
>