Envelope-Derived Timing Recovery in QAM and SQAM Systems

The problem of continuously recovering timing phase and frequency in a high-rate carrier-modulated data communication device is addressed. The communication link is assumed narrowband with respect to the baud rate of the device, thus necessitating the use of some type of equalization in the receiver. The receiver demodulator is assumed coherent in nature. A timing recovery technique based on narrow-band filtering and squaring of the received demodulated waveform(s) is examined. Analysis of the first moment of the waveforms so generated reveals a convenient indicator of sampling instants. If the timing recovery filters are properly designed, then these sampling instants exactly satisfy a requirement previously derived, ensuring efficient operation of the equalizer. Design criteria for the filters are given. Two principal types of linear modulation techniques are considered. These are quardrature-carrier amplitude modulation (QAM) and staggered QAM (SQAM). A set of experimental waveforms observed in a QAM modem signaling at 2400 Bd is included for illustration. Several conclusions are drawn as a result of the study. First, the mean timing waveforms in QAM and SQAM systems bear fixed time relationships to suitable receiver sampling instants. Second, adequate timing filter design is attained with very narrowband filters centered on frequencies equal to half the baud rate and the full baud rate. Third, recovery circuits used in QAM systems may be designed so as to have negligible timing jitter. In SQAM systems and, consequently, in vestigial sideband-amplitude modulation (VSB-AM) systems, this advantage is generally not found.