On the Use of Bit Error Rate Testers to Test the Data Quality Metric

Abstract

Many modern telemetry receivers have the capability to estimate the bit error probability (BEP) and to transfer this information, in the form of the data quality metric (DQM) to a telemetry data center. When the DQMs from multiple receivers are transferred with their corresponding bit decisions to a central location, the DQMs enable an advanced form of best source selection that has been shown to improve the overall reliability of the telemetry data. For this to work, the BEP estimation algorithm must be properly calibrated across all receivers, regardless of manufacturer. To test the calibration, a receiver’s bit error rate (BER) obtained from a bit error rate tester (BERT) may be compared to the BEP estimate derived from the DQM. Because both the BEP and the BER are estimates, both exhibit random variations that make comparing the two difficult. This paper describes the use of BER confidence intervals to compare the BEP and BER estimates.