Complex noncoherent receivers for GMSK signals

Noncoherent demodulators are very attractive for high performance radio LAN (HIPERLAN) systems because of their low implementation costs and their inherent robustness against frequency and carrier phase offsets. However, when the channel is time dispersive, the nonlinear intersymbol interference (ISI) introduced by these demodulators precludes the use of conventional linear equalization strategies. We present an alternative noncoherent receiver structure followed by a nonlinear equalizer, which includes a RAM and a Viterbi detector, capable of equalizing nonlinear multipath fading channels. In addition, we also present a new algorithm specifically for noncoherent demodulators, which allows estimation of all useful signal values at the input of the equalizer to be stored in the RAM. By means of computer simulations, we report the performance and computational complexity tradeoffs of the receiver/equalizer structure, including antenna diversity. We show that demodulators which consist of a complex receiver and a Viterbi detector are much more robust against multipath fading channels than traditional real noncoherent demodulators. The results suggest that in a typical HIPERLAN scenario, where the channel delay spread is less than 50 ns and a reliable line of sight component exists, it is feasible to combat multipath effects using noncoherent demodulation.