Timing Synchronization and Detection for Systems with 1-bit Quantization and Runlength Coding

Future communications systems are expected to utilize very large bandwidths, increasing the power consumption of analog-to-digital converters (ADCs). To address this, receivers employing temporally oversampled 1-bit quantization promise reduced power consumption due to simplified ADC circuitry. However, 1-bit ADCs introduce a non-linearity to the system, necessitating the redevelopment of most receiver algorithms. This paper extends prior work on timing synchronization for receivers with 1-bit ADCs, evaluating the mutual information rate over an equivalent modulation channel using two synchronization and detection approaches: i) interpolation and decimation based synchronization followed by soft-output detection, and ii) Bahl Cocke Jelinev Raviv (BCJR) algorithm-based joint synchronization and detection. Both approaches perform well, with the former being more computationally efficient. Additionally, we study the mutual information rate between the transmitter and the 1-bit ADC output, serving as an upper limit on the synchronizer performance.