Phase-Locked Loops: Application to Coherent Receiver Design

Preface: The phase-locked loop has been in use for over fifteen years in the domain of space telecommunications and for several years in the far wider fields of telecommunications in general, radiolocalization, and measurement and frequency synthesis instrumentation. One of the essential properties of the phase-locked loop is the restitution of the phase, and thereby the frequency, of a signal immersed in noise, which can then be coherently detected. The coherent detection method fully justifies the many surveys that have been devoted to this subject over the last 20 or 30 years. On the one hand, emitter power is restricted by various practical considerations, such as weight, power consumption, price, interference, or even international power radiation regulations. On the other hand, we require communication over ever-growing distances, implying the constant reduction of link power budgets. Consequently, in many applications, the signal received is very low and the standard reception and detection techniques fail, whereas coherent techniques are remarkably efficient. Phase-locked loops are thus of considerable interest in that they are basic elements in current top-performance reception and detection equipment. Initially studied and developed in connection with space telecommunications, they are more and more widely used in all fields of telecommunications and electronics for, apart from performance considerations, they frequently represent the optimum solution from the points of view of price, simplicity of design, and facility of adjustment. The present book was originally intended as a means for students who have already completed a course in general telecommunications and electronics to acquire the necessary basis for the conception of equipment using coherent techniques....