Apparatus and method for measuring bit error rate in an OFDM communication system

• US 20020004920A1
• Filed: 01/29/2001
• Published: 01/10/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 01/28/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Thomson-Csf Systems Company Limited
• Inventors: Park, Jong-Hyeon, Kim, Ho, Cho, Eun-Ee
• Granted Patent: US 6,810,020 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/704
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/20 using signal quality detector
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 27/2656 Frame synchronisation, e.g. packet synchronisation, time division duplex [TDD] switching point detection or subframe synchronisation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0007 the frequencies being orthogonal, e.g. OFDM(A), DMT
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0048 Allocation of pilot signals, i.e. of signals known to the receiver

Abstract

Disclosed is an apparatus for measuring a bit error rate (BER) in an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) communication system. A transmitter includes a pilot pattern inserter for inserting a first reference pilot pattern in subchannels of input data, and an OFDM modulator for OFDM-modulating the reference pilot pattern-inserted transmission data. A receiver includes a pilot pattern detector for OFDM-demodulating a data symbol received in a frame unit and detecting only a pilot pattern, and a BER operator for comparing the demodulated pilot pattern with a second reference pilot pattern, detecting and accumulating the number of pilot errors, and measuring a bit error rate by dividing the accumulated number of the pilot errors by the number of total received pilot patterns.

Claims

1. An apparatus for measuring a bit error rate (BER) in an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) communication system, comprising:

a transmitter including;

a pilot pattern inserter for inserting a first reference pilot pattern in subchannels of input data, and outputting reference pilot pattern-inserted transmission data; and

an OFDM modulator for OFDM-modulating the reference pilot pattern-inserted transmission data; and

a receiver including;

a pilot pattern detector for OFDM-demodulating a data symbol received in a frame unit and detecting only a pilot pattern; and

a BER operator for comparing the demodulated pilot pattern with a second reference pilot pattern, detecting and accumulating the number of pilot errors, and measuring a bit error rate by dividing the accumulated number of the pilot errors by the number of total received pilot patterns.

2. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the pilot pattern inserter inserts a pilot channel in each symbol in one frame using one of a fixed and dispersed pilot.

3. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the BER operator comprises:

a comparator for comparing the demodulated pilot pattern with the second reference pattern and outputting comparison data;

a pilot error number calculator for calculating the number of the pilot errors contained in the comparison data output from the comparator;

a pilot error number accumulator for accumulating the calculated number of the pilot errors;

a received pilot patterns number accumulator for accumulating the number of the demodulated pilot patterns; and

a BER calculator for calculating the bit error rate by dividing the accumulated number of the pilot errors by the number of the total received pilot patterns.

4. The apparatus as claimed in claim 3, wherein the first and second reference pilot patterns are equal to each other.

5. A method for measuring a bit error rate in an OFDM communication system, comprising the steps of:

upon receipt of transmission data, inserting a first reference pilot pattern in a data symbol;

OFDM-modulating reference pilot pattern-inserted data symbol;

transmitting the modulated data symbol in a frame unit;

receiving the modulated data symbol in the frame unit;

demodulating the data symbol received in the frame unit;

detecting a pilot pattern from the demodulated data symbol;

calculating the number of the total received pilots patterns by accumulating the detected demodulated pilot pattern;

comparing the detected demodulated pilot pattern with a second reference pilot pattern to detect pilot errors;

accumulating the number of the detected pilot errors; and

measuring a bit error rate by dividing the accumulated number of the pilot errors by the number of the total received pilot patterns.