Simulation of RBDS AM subcarrier modulation techniques to determine BER and audio quality

This paper describes the modeling and simulation of candidate AM subcarrier systems designed to transmit digital information for display on the dial of next generation radios. AM subcarrier technology still remains under-developed and its possible applications untapped. One such application of AM subcarriers is the Advanced Traffic/Traveler Information System. In the proposed system, the digital signal is inserted between the AM carrier and the audio sidebands. This paper investigates the effect of mutual interference between the audio and digital programs for a variety of digital modulation schemes, bit rates, and channel conditions. The GMSK subcarrier model exhibited the best overall performance in terms of spectrum efficiency and output signal-to-noise ratio.