Multi-ary pulse amplitude modulated signal processing using bistable stochastic resonance

Bistable stochastic resonance (BSR) is a nonlinear phenomenon in which the weak periodic signal can be enhanced by a certain level of noise, and it reveals a possibility of turning the noise from a nuisance into a benefit. Later, the aperiodic stochastic resonance (ASR) (BSR system with aperiodic inputs) theory was proposed, which makes a combination of BSR theory with information theory. However, the latest researches on BSR are still confined to binary signal processing. This paper investigates multi-ary pulse amplitude modulated (MPAM) signal processing under additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) using BSR technique. First, we analyze the feasibility of using the BSR system to process the MPAM signal. On this basis, the mechanism of the BSR system response to MPAM signal inputs is elucidated, and a corresponding decoding scheme is proposed. Further, the expression of the decision threshold for decoding the MPAM signal is derived. Finally, simulation results are given to validate the effectiveness of our proposed scheme.