JOURNAL OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES, VOLUME 2, ISSUE 1, JANUARY 2012 36

Frame Synchronization to down load the Remote Sensing Satellite Data

A. A.N.Satyanarayana and B. Y.Venkatarami Reddy
Abstract The Remote Sensing Satellites transmit the data in PCM formatted mode while embedding a synchronization code word at regular intervals as a time marker for the receiver synchronization. The currently available Correlator ICs have a bandwidth limitation. The paper discusses novel design technique adopted by the authors to design the high-speed digital correlator that caters to the requirements of the remote sensing satellites, which are in the road map for the next decade. The multiplexing design approach helped in achieving the higher bandwidth of operation. The VLSI design methodology adopted, resulted in reducing the design cycle time, the design optimization techniques ushered in realizing the entire logic in a single 36 macro cell CPLD. The system has been validated for operational use. Index TermsCorrelator, FlyWheel logic, Probability of Error Occurance and Satellite Frame Sync Code.

1 INTRODUCTION
Satellite Communications experienced rapid growth in the past 3 to 4 decades. The Bandwidth requirements have increased multifold along with the data volumes. Therefore the speed requirements for the digital Correlators are much beyond the Correlators that are available in the world market resulting in need for high speed digital Correlators with all desirable properties with respect to reliability, maintainability and cost using the VLSI technology. Correlation is a mathematical technique widely used in Communications, Instrumentation, Computers, Signal processing and Pattern Recognition. This technique can be applied to digital signals as well as to analog signals. The Correlation involve comparison of two sequences for a match by sliding against each other and then attempting to determine how closely the sequences resemble as they move with respect to each other in time scale [1]. The Correlation of a function with a time-delayed replica of itself is called autocorrelation. The application of multiplexing techniques to digital Correlator is used to increase the operating speed. To configure M-bit digital Correlator using n-fold multiplexing resulted in N sub-Correlators, which are summed up to form the desired Correlator. In addition to multiplexing; synchronization, design optimization to achieve the desired speed are the important elements of this design. The authors have used new design techniques so that the Correlators can be used for all the remote sensing satellites that are in the road map for next decade and to cater to the full bandwidth capabilities for remote sensing applications. The design has been realized, certified and being put to operational use.

2 FRAME SYNC INSERTION AND ITS DETECTION

2.1 Frame Synch Frame synch words are inserted into the PCM data stream as a time marker for the receiver synchronization. This frame sync work as a synchronizing code word at regular time intervals and is useful for the recognition and retrieval of the information. The information theory indicates that the number of bits required to specify the beginning of the frame is L = (log2 M) [1]. where L is the minimum number of bits required for error-free channel for a proper signal to noise ratio. The problems of noisy channel and the probability of random data having the appearance as frame sync code indicate the need for frame sync code with a length and 2 to 5 times L in order to achieve rapid frame sync acquisition. The specific values selected for a system would depend upon the worst case operating conditions of the signal-to-noise ratio. The Correlators of TRW range of 40 to 60 MHz use Pseudo random linear code generator [3] references of length N = 2n 1 to shorten Correlation length.

3 Design Description

The overall block diagram of the system is shown in Figure 1 below. The Frame Synchronization process is made more reliable by the flywheel logic. The circuit at power on assumes the search mode of operation. After F.A. A.N.Satyanarayana, Engr SF is with the National Remote Sensing the initial data synchronization, the serial data bits from the incoming data are used as seed words to load the inCentre, Indian Space Research Centre, Dept of Space, Govt of India, Hyderabad Pin Code 500625. ternal reference data generator. The Primary Comparator checks for the initial consecutive agreements and the S.B. Dr. Y.Venkatarami Reddy, Former Vice chancellorUniversity of Mismatch accumulator resets the logic once the error toJNTuniversity, Andhra Pradesh. lerance is violated. If consecutive agreements occur, the Pattern Comparator will compare the next stream of bits with those from the reference data. Since the communica 2012 JICT www.jict.co.uk

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tion channel is error prone, for robust operation the system has programmable error tolerance. Once the required agreements occur, the sync code word end bits from the reference data generator

seven consecutive bit agreements may not occur. If we proceed to calculate the probability of occurrence of these types of errors, we have N = 56, x = 8 and P = 10 6 Substituting in the equation 1.0 we have P 8 = 1.4025 X 10-39 Thus P8 gives the Probability of the system missing the initial consecutive seven bit agreements. Thus the probability of the system locking to the initial consecutive seven bits is P lock = {1 - ( P8 +P9+.+P56)} but P9 to P56 being infinitesimally small, hence are Ignored. P lock = 1 (CERTAIN TO LOCK) (Equation 1.1)

Figure: 1 are gated and the gate output is enabled at the end of the frame sync word, resulting in the system going from search mode to Lock/Maintenance mode. The circuit continues in the maintenance mode, searching for frame sync code words at regular intervals at which they are inserted by the formatter. In the maintenance mode, the flywheel logic helps in achieving the above operation.

Therefore this design approach is certain in locking to the initial consecutive seven bits. The above calculations pertained to the 56 bits; the probability calculation for the remaining 64 bits is as follows. For a test case assuming the error tolerance of one error X=2; Pe = 10-6; N=64 Substituting in Eqn. 1.0 we have P2 = 2.016 X 10-9 As given in the equation 1.1 the probability of the system locking to initial consecutive 7-bits is 1 i.e. certain. Thus the overall probability of the system missing the frame synchronization (PMFS) is PMFS = 2.016 X 10-9 Thus the design proves to be four times robust than the conventional correlation approach adopted by commercially available ICs whose probability of missing frame synchronization is 8 X 10-9.

4 DESIGN VALIDATION
The Frame Sync correlation takes place in two modes viz. Search Mode and Maintenance Mode. The time interval during which the correlation gets established is called SEARCH mode. After the correlation the logic has to continue in the correlated mode and continue the correlation in the lock state. This is called MAINTENANCE mode. However due to the channel noise the logic looses the lock and reenters the search mode. Therefore the receiver framing circuit can be viewed as a two state machine, either searching for the sync word location or maintaining its temporal position once the sync word has been identified. When the channel errors corrupt the bit stream no events occur with certainty and a probabilistic model must be used for analysis. In each mode of operation of the system, a received serial bit is compared to a reference serial data bit. Each bit comparison may be considered to be a Bernoulli trial [2] so that the number of bit mismatches in the code word as the binomial distribution with parameter Pe , which is the probability of channel error rate for a sync word length of N bits and error tolerance of x bits. The probability of error occurrence in the sync code word P is P= N C x ( Pe ) x ( 1 Pe ) N-x (Equation 1.0) For a Channel with Pe = 1 X 10-6 The pattern comparator checks 64-bits of received data, after excluding the seed word bits, the remaining 56-bits can be grouped as eight equal groups. If more than seven bit errors occur randomly within the 8 groups the initial

4.2 Performance in Maintenance Mode Two measures of performance are used when the receiver is in Frame Synchronism [4]. The first is the expected time maintaining false sync before it is rejected (TMFS) and the second is the expected time of maintaining true synchronism (TMTS). In the later case, random channel errors will eventually cause the true code word to be rejected and search mode will be re-entered. While the receiver is in the maintenance mode, each multi frame code word is verified to detect a possible loss of synchronism. When synchronism is lost due to channel errors, information bits are presented for code word verification. In most cases, the false code word is immediately rejected (1 - PMF) and the receiver is returned to the search mode.
In some cases, random information bits can resemble the code word and false synchronism may be maintained for

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several multi frames. When measured from the correct word, the expected time to maintain false synchronism may be calculated by the following equation: TMFS = (NF * TB) / (1- PMF) (Equation 2.0) NF is the number of bits in a multi frame TMFS is the average maintenance time of false synchronism (1 PMF) is the possibility of rejecting a false sync word TB is the time per transmitted bit For a test case with a Channel Error Rate of 1 * 10-6, NF = 37500 Bits & TB =23.5565 ns Substituting in equation 2.0, we have TMFS = 0.88364 ms A receiver in correct synchronism may falsely initiate search mode when the code word has been severely corrupted with channel errors. The average time to reject the true sync word is the maintenance time of true synchronism. TMTS = (NF * TB) / (1- PMT) (Equation 2.1) TMTS is the average maintenance time of true synchronism (1- PMT) is the probability of rejecting the true sync word. For the above test case we have TMTS = 122 Hrs

TFTS = 0.88364 * 10-3 sec

5 CONCLUSION
The system designed and developed by the authors has been tested and certified upto 160 MHz. The design has been proven to be four times more reliable than the commercially available Correlators. The design has the flexibility to adapt to scalable parallelism for higher performance, though the current design meets the requirements for all the satellites to be launched in the next decade.

REFERENCES
[1]

S.W.Golomb, Digital Communications with Space Applications, Prentice Hall,1964W.-K. Chen, Linear Networks
and Systems. Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth, pp. 123-135, 1993. (Book style)

[2]

Seymour Lip Schulz, Theory of Probability, McGraw Hill, 1981K. Elissa, An Overview of Decision Theory," unpublished. (Unplublished manuscript)

[3]

L.R.Button, D.E.Doods & A.G.Wacker , Digital Framing Techniques for Satellite Channels, Technical study paper, 1983.

[4]

D. E. Bockelman and W. R. Eisenstadt, Combined Differential and Common-mode Scattering Parameters: Theory and Simulation, IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory Tech., vol. 43 (Jul. 1995), pp. 1530-1539. [5] Sklar, B., Digital Communications, Fundamentals and Applications, Prentice-Hall Press,Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1988, ISBN 0-13-211939-0. First A. *A.N.Satyanarayan obtained his M.Tech (Digital systems and Computer Systems) from JNT University, Hyderabad, pursuing PhD at JNTU, Hyderabad. Joined Indian Space Research Organisation ISRO in 1982, since then he has worked in Satellite Data Reception Systems Group of National Remote Sensing Centre. Associated in the design and development of IRS frame synchronizers and digital correlators, Bit Error Rate Systems and data Simulators. Fellow of IETE, Member of Carto Graphy Association and Active member in Intrumentation society
of India. Balanagar, Hyderabad- 500635 040-23884293, 23884295. Cell. 09390020319.
Second B. Dr Y.Venkatarami Reddy, Former Vice chancel-

4.1 Performance in Search Mode In search mode each bit position of the incoming data is tested for the synchronizing code word. In testing the (NF 1) false locations of the multi frame random data may resemble the sync word and cause sync maintenance in a false location. When the maintenance word fails to verify the next sync word, the process returns to search mode. When the correct sync location is encountered, the maintenance mode is usually entered although random errors can cause continuation in the search mode. If the search procedure is assumed to start in the worst possible location, the equation below calculates the maximum average search time.
TFTS = (NF * TB) / (PAT) (Equation 2.1) Where PAT is Probability of accepting the True Sync word. For the test case of above we have

lor University of JNTU, Andhra Pradesh, India,for 10 years, later on Chairmen Andhra Pradesh Public Service Commision, Delevered several lectures throught India and Foregin Universites.