Software Defined Radio for Carrier and Symbol Timing Extraction

Abstract

Using LabVIEW, a software-defined radio receiver was developed to extract the phase of the carrier and the symbol timing interval for possible satellite diagnostics. The receiver consists of two main parts: a phase-locked loop and a symbol timing algorithm. Using a Weaver demodulator and a complex-to-complex mixer, the phase of the carrier is extracted from the input signal. A windows-based timing algorithm, compatible with non-return-to-zero and biphase coding, extracts the symbol arrival time interval. Lastly, a two-stage logging algorithm temporarily stores output data in a DRAM buffer before streaming the data to the hard drive for final storage.