Data Asymmetry Analysis for Space Shuttle Communications Link

Abstract

This paper systematically analyzes the signal-to-noise ratio degradations which can potentially occur due to data asymmetry in digital transmission systems. Suitable asymmetry models are developed and error probability performance for two types of data detectors (integrate-and-dump filter, and gated-integrate-and-dump filter) is derived. Although this work was done to resolve problems being encountered in the Shuttle Kuband return link design, specifically for the 50 Mbps convolutionally encoded channel (NRZ format), generalizations are made which provide results for other cases of interest (other Ku-band return link channels, or other systems entirely). This paper therefore considers Manchester data formats (in addition to NRZ) and uncoded transmission (in addition to convolutionally coded transmission).