U

- l
I
l
I
I
- r I ] I !lll=
I I
l\
i rlr
I
- t
, D !- I

- I I

AtU|odifisd
Constaltt
-
-

tU|odulus
Al
!t

-
V

l-

Enters
The Modulus." Simulation results show that
this simple modification to CMA speeds
up its convergence rate by an order of
magnitude when channel distortion is
ThisFast-Converging,CMA-Based Blind moderate. For a heavily distorted
receivedsignal, a hybrid approach yields
EqualizationAlgonithmFonGAM Modems better results than those that are
obtained when CMA is used alone. In
HandlesSignalDistontion.
Effectively this approach, CMA is used at startup
and then it switchesto AMA. Simulation
(CMA) is a memberof this family.This results are now proving the validity of
M0DERN::#,-ffiiiT.lLi algorithm has gained popularity in
width-efficientmodulation techniques, QAM-basedwirelessmodemsdue to its
this new approach.

suchasquadratureamplitudemodulat- insensitivityto carrier frequencyoffset. CMA ALGt|RITHM

ed (QAM). With QAM, the amplitude During acquisitionphase,suchinsensi- The ConstantModulus Algorithm is a
and phaseof a sinusoidalsignalareboth tivity is required from an equalization very popular adaptive-equalization
varied to transmit digital information. algorithm.Yet the commercialuse of algorithm.It is employedin modemsto
Most transmission mediums correct for the distortion intro-
v introduce distortion in the duced by the channel. CMA
transmitted signal in ampli- belongs to a special family of
- tude as well as phase. This adaptive equalizers. In this
'--*.t-,
- distortion is sometimes \. family, the equalizer taps are
"blindly" (i.e.,
referred to as intersymbol updated without
interference (ISI) because the transmission of a training
weighted contributions of a \ sequence).This approach saves
I
neighboring symbols are o bandwidth.
t
added to the current symbol. I
t
CMAs popularity, especial-
To combat ISI, both wire- I
ly in wireless applications, is
Iess and wireline modems due to two facts. First of all, it
employ various equalization is able to extract channel
techniques. In principle, t
information in the presence
these techniques attempt to \ of carrier frequency offset.
recoverthe original transmit- This feature is especially
ted signal. The two most desirable at startup phase.
widely used techniques in Secondly, its LMS-like update
- practice are forward error equation makes CMA very
correction (FEC) and chan- easy to analyze and imple-
nel equalization. For the lat- ment in power-limited appli-
v
ter, a training sequence is 1. This graphic depicts a 168AM constellation.lt cations. Unfortunately, these
generally transmitted to help shows both the CMA circle and QPSKand EPSK nice features do not come
the adaptive equalizer extract sub-constellations. without a price. For example,
channel information. The CMA has a slow convergence
-
problem with this approachis that the CMA has beenlimited by its slow con- rate. This issuehas limited its use in
Y trainingsequence consumesbandwidth. vergencerate.As it turns out, this slow some commercial applications,which
To remedythis problem,blind equaliza- convergence rateis an inherentproblem needa rapid convergencerate.
-
tion algorithmshavebeenproposed.In in all blind equalizationalgorithms. To gain a better understanding oI
- thesealgorithms,channelinformationis This articleproposesa modified ver- how CMA works, take a closelook at
"Constant
extractedfrom informationdataonly. sion of CMA in which the the error-calculation and filter-taps
- "Adaptive
The Constant Modulus Algorithm Modulus" is replacedby an updateequations:
V

WIRETES
SSY S T E MD$E $ I G l I APRIL20O3
-
 I WIRELESS
MODEMS
]
- CMA-AMA
equalizer
for 160AMNLOS
fixed-wireless
applications
-
- Upsample
Random-integer Rectangular
OAM
generator modulator
baseband
- otfset
-
-
-
CMA/AMA
equalizer
Equalizer
taps
2. The MathWorks' Simulink model was used in the simulation to compare the performance of AMA to that of CMA.
- mean squared error (MSE) to an accept-
v
e(k)- ,-(k)lB'-
ly(r)l'] trl
Y course, they would take over after fre-
h ( k+ t ) = h ( k )+ w * ( p ) e ( * )( 2 )
-
- Here, x(k) = [x(k) x(k-l)...x(k - M r
t ) lr is a length-M vector of input samples
U
to the equalizer-tapped delay line. The
- length-M equalizertapsis h(k). The adap-
tation step sizeis p,. The equalized output
signal ir y(k).Conjugation is denoted by
(.)*. It should be mentioned that when
equalization takes place in the baseband,
all of the above-mentioned signals are
complex. The value of the constant
parameter B2,calledthe dispersion factor,
dependson the modulation schemebeing
used.It is equalto r{la;14}/E{lu'lt}, whereE
{.} denotesexpectation.The a; (i = 1,2...N)
representsthe QAM constellation points.
For 16QAM (N = 16),where the in-phase
and quadrature components are derived
from the alphabeta = [t 1, + 3], we have
92 = 13.2.
Examining the 16QAM constellation
in FIGURE 1, one can derive a rather use-
v CORRECTCHANNEL
fi.rlinterpretation of this parameter. CMA
attempts to fit the output of the equalizer
to a circle of radius B. This minimization
criterion allows CMA to remove ISI. At
the same time, it remains insensitive to
carrier frequency offset. Unfortunately,
this same criterion also slows down the
convergencespeedofthe equalizertaps to
their optimum values. In some cases,
CMA will never be able to reduce the
TxSRRCF
Downsample
RxSRRGF
able level in order for decision-directed
equalization techniques to take over. Of
quency-offset compensation. Better per-
formance can be achieved by adapting
the value of p2 basedon certain decisions.
AMAATG(lRITHM
LMS-based adaptive equalization algo-
rithms are derived by minimizing a cer-
tain cost function of the secondorder. For
r l l
TO COMBATISI, BOTH
WIRELESSAND WIBELINE
MODEMSEMPLOYVAFIOUS
EGUALIZATION TECHNIGUES.
ONE SUCH ADAPTIVE-
EGUALIZATION ALGORITHM
IS CMA. A HYBHIDVERSION
OF THIS ALGORITHM,ALONG
WITH AMA, CAN BEST
DISTORTION.
CMA, this cost function is E{(p
t-ly(k)lt)'1.The choiceof this costfunc-
tion givesCMA its most important fea-
ture: insensitivityto phase rotations. 92=2'
Unfortunately, this same choice also f ff ly(k)12is greaterthan 6 but lessthan
degrades thealgorithmtperformance. To or equal to 14,then B2 = 19.
Canierfrequency
Channel
AWGN
channel
seewhy this happens,observeFigure I rn
more detail. This cost function attempts
to minimize a squared-error expression.
Yet this expressionwill nevervanish, even
if the filter taps miraculously converge to
their optimum values.This is becausethe
non-vanishing error term in Equation 2
keeps contributing to updating the filter
taps. This is true even when an optimum
solution is reached.In other words, as
seenin the 16QAM example,the equaliz-
er is not able to output a clean 16QAM
constellation.
. To remedy this problem without sacri-
ficing CMAs insensitivity to phase rota-
"adaptive"
tions, it is proposed that an
modulus should be employed instead of a
constant one. Referring back to Figure 1,
observe that the 16QAM constellation is
composed of three sub-constellations:two
QPSK and one 8PSK. Each of the inner
and outer sub-constellations represents a
QPSK constellation with a radius of t/2
and /18, respectively.The middle sub-
constellation represents SPSK with a
radius of /10. With this stated,one can
now make the following statement using
the Maximum Likelihood (ML) principle:
The output of the equalizer will most like-
ly belong to the closest ring. When using
16QAM modulation,thevalue of B 2must
therefore be adapted according to the fol-
lowing conditions:
f If ly(k)12is lessthan or equal to 6, then
APRIL2OO3 W I R E T E S
SSY S T E MDSE S I G l {
-
-
I WIRELESS
MODEMS
]
-
- MSEcurvesfor GMAandAMA
-
Y
-
- 6
tt
uJ
- C"
= cn
-
-
-
-
5001m015mxm 25m3(m 35m4m045m5(m
Iterations
3. This image depicts the MSE trajectory for CMA and
AMA in the presence of Channel 1.
f ff ly(k)12is greaterthan 14, then B2 :
18.
For an example,refer again to Figure 1.
The squared magnitude of y(k), which is
located between the inner and middle
rings, should be subtractedfrom l0-not
from 13.2 as suggestedin CMA. The
above stated modifications to CMA
clearly ensure that the magnitude of the
- proposed error signal is smaller than the
CMA one. This will help speedup CMAs
- convergence rate. It also will guarantee
v the smallestachievableMSE.It should be
mentioned that similar conditions could
- be derived for higher-order QAM con-
bt
stellations, as any QAM constellation can
be decomposed into smaller MPSK sub-
- constellations.
The above modifications to CMA are
Lt
inspired from decision-directed (DD)
equalization algorithms. In general,these
algorithms perform better than CMA in
- PRESENCEOF CAHRIER
the absenceof phase rotations. So the
newly proposed algorithm combines the
advantagesof DD algorithms and CMA.
- Unfortunately, as with DD algorithms,
AMA may tail to converge if channel dis-
tortion is severe or-more precisely-if
- p. ) 0.01. CMA rarely suffers from this
- problem, however.In this particular case,
it is suggestedto combine both CMA and
AMA. CMA is used at startup and then
followed by AMA when the effect of
channel distortion is reduced to an
- acceptablelevel.
v
SIMUTATI(|N
RESULTS
- Simulink from The MathWorks,Inc. is
used to comparethe performanceof
-
AMA to that of CMA. This choiceof a
-
WIRETES
SSY S T E MDSE $ I G 1 { APRIL2OO3
U
:t
MSEcurvesfor GMAandhybridCMA-AMA
o
!,
|rl
=
4. Here, the MSE trajectory is illustrated for CMA and
AMA in the presence of Channel 2.
simulation tool is motivated by the fol-
lowing reasons:
I Simulink is a system-level tool that
allows the user to study the interaction
of various components in a straight-
forward manner. This is a must-have
feature if one wants to perform trade-
off analysis on the system level rather
than on the component level, as when
programming languagesare used.
I The DSP and communications
libraries within Simulink contain most
standard DSP and communications
T T T
CMAS POPULARITYIS DUE
TO TWO FACTS. FIBST,IT IS
ABLE TO EXTRACTCHANNEL
INFORMATION IN THE
FBEGUENCYOFFSET.
SECONDLYITS LMS-LIKE
UPDATEEOUATIONMAKES
CMA VERY EASY TO ANALYZE
AND IMPLEMENTIN POWER-
LIMITEDAPPLICATIONS.
functions and algorithms. Some good
examples are the adaptive filters and
modulation techniques. They allow
the user to build a simulation model
very quickly without having to resort
to manual coding.
I Simulink interacts seamlessly with
MATLAB, a popular tool for scientific
computing. As a result, the user can
utilize MATLAB's powerful graphical
and analyticaltools, aswell asits script-
ing capability for comparing different
simulation results.
FTGURE2 shows the baseband-to-
baseband simulation setup using
l6QAM as the modulation technique.
The random-integer-generator block
generates 16 equiprobable symbols at a
rate of 6.25 Mbaud (equivalent to 25
Mbps). These symbols are then mapped
to I6QAM complex numbers. For ban-
dlimiting the transmitted signal, a
square-root raised-cosine 96-tap filter
(SRRCF) with 50oloexcessbandwidth
and an 8X oversampling rate is used.
Using the Digital Filter Design block in
the DSP library, this pulse-shaping filter
is designedinteractively.
The carrier frequency offset is normal-
ly caused by the small mismatch that
existsbetweenthe transmitter and receiv-
er RF oscillators. To simulate this offset,
the transmitted signal is multiplied by a
complex sinusoid. The frequency of this
sinusoid corresponds to the overall
worst-casefrequency offset. The magni-
tude of this frequency offset is directly
proportional to the RF carrier and the
accuracyof the RF oscillators.
In this case,the given was a 27.4-GHz
RF carrier that has been allocated for
Local Multipoint Distribution Service
(LMDS). Assuming the use of Tx and Rx
RF oscillatorswith 50-ppm accuracy,this
offset is equal to2,74MHz (equivalent to
2 x 50 x 10-6x 27.4 x l0e). To simulate
the ISI introduced by the channel, a typi-
cal LMDS fixed-wireless non-line-of-
-
I wnruss
M0DEMS
]
-
sight (NLOS) FIR channel
- model was used (SEE TABLEI.
\- For completeness,an AWGN
channel block was added.
- The receiveris composedof
0 0.48
-' a complementary SRRCR a
20
downsampler, and an adaptive
- 40
equalizer block. Underneath
the latter is the LMS Adaptive 60
-
Filter block found in the DSP 80
- library, aswell asan error-gen- 100
\- erator block. This blockgener- 120
atesthe appropriate error sig- '140
- nal depending on the algo- 160
rithm used. Other graphical
- 180
blocks are added to the model.
They allow the visualization of
200
the adaptive filters taps and the 220
- constellation diagram of the 240
- equalized signal. 260
To illustrate the validity of 280
- AMA, two computer simula-
300
tions are performed under dif-
:t
320
ferent channel conditions. In
- 340
the first experiment, Channel
I was used. It introduces rela- 360
v
tively moderate channel dis-
- tortion. The secondsimulation employed
Channel 2, which introduces severechan-
-
nel distortion. Both casesused 1l-tap
- baud-rate channel equalizers.In addition,
it was assumed that the pulse-shaping fil-
- ters would not introduce any additional
- channel distortion. The incoming signalis
sampled at the optimum sampling point.
:t
Furthermore, the MSE is approximated
using the following time-based averaging
window (SEE EOUATION3l
This MSE is further smoothed over
200 independent simulation runs. In
both cases,the B used in computing the
MSE is the adaptive one. This p
better measuresthe extent to which the
output constellation is clean. In both
experiments, the equalizer taps are ini-
tialized to zero.The exception is the mid-
dle one, which is initialized to unity.
Noise was not added in either case.
In the first experiment, different step
sizeswere chosen for CMA and AMA so
that they both had the same normalized
MSE upon convergence(in this case,-53
dB). This approach allowed a fair com-
parison of convergencerates.Looking at
FIGURE3, it can be concluded that in the
- presenceof moderate channel distortion,
AMA outperforms CMA with respectto
v
convergence speed. While it takes CMA
- 5000 iterations to attain -18-dB MSE, for
example, AMA reachesthat level in less
-
than 300 iterations. At that MSE level.
-
-
IE
wrong. This issue causesthe
equalizer taps to diverge from
CHANNEL1 TAPS the right solution.
MODERATE DISTORTION On the contrary, CMA has
no convergenceproblems at
0.70
all. Compared to the first case,
1 1
however, it does take longer for
0 .5 8 0,52
the equalizer taps to converge
0.12 0.24 to the right solution. Under
0.10 0.35 severechannel conditions like
0 0.37 this, it is suggested that a
0 0.24 hybrid approach be used. In
this approach, the equalizer
0 0.21
0 0 usesthe CMA error at startup.
It can then be switched to the
0 0
AMA error when MSE reaches
0.10 0.23 an acceptablelevel.
0 0.2 FIGURE 4 shows the MSE
0 0 curves for both CMA and
0 0.27 hybrid CMA-AMA algo-
0.12 0.43 rithms. By switching to AMA
(in this case at 5000 itera-
0.15 0.40
tions), faster convergence
0 0.27
speed can clearly be obtained.
0.12 0
As an example, the hybrid
0.13 0 ClvL{-AlW{ MSE curve reach-
es -37 dB at 5200 iterations.
this number representsa sixteenfold con- The CMA curve reachesthat level after
vergencespeedimprovement. Here is
an ideaof the simulation
speed MSE(k)= -lr(;)l'l'
achievedby Simulinkin this case:All
+ i
32 ,-4, lB, '- ' '' I (3)
L'
200 independentruns take 163sto
completeon a PIII 600-MHzcomputer only 10,000iterations.
with 328M of RAM. In this article, a simple and elegant
solution has been proposed to solve the
slow convergenceproblem of CMA. By
l l r employing an Adaptive Modulus instead
of a Constant one, designers can quicken
EMPLOYINGAN ADAPTIVE the convergence speed of CMA. This
MODULUSINSTEADOF A Adaptive Modulus has been inspired by
CONSTANTONE ALLOWS decision-directed equalization methods.
DESIGNERSTO GUICKEN In the absence of phase errors, these
equalization methods generally outper-
CMA CONVERGENCE SPEED.
form CMA.
INSPIREDBY DECISION-
Simulation results using l6QAM
DIRECTEDEGUALIZATION modulation prove that in the presenceof
METHODSIN THE ABSENCE light-to-moderate channel distortions,
OF PHASEERRORS,SUCH the new algorithm-known as baptized
METHODSGENERALLY AMA-converges faster than CMA.
Under severechannel conditions, howev-
OUTPERFORM CMA.
er,AMA might fail to convergeto the cor-
rect solution.In this case,a hybrid CMA-
AMA approachis proposed.CMA can be
In the second experiment, it was used at startup until the MSE reachesan
determined that AMA fails to converge acceptablelevel. Then, the designer can
to the right solution (results not shown switch to AMA. I
here). The severedistortion introduced
by Channel2 is to blame. This is expect- Maher Arar, Se/rlo
r Application
Engineer,
ed, as AMA makes boundary decisions j AppleHill Dr., Natick,
TheMathWorks,Inc.,
at the output of the equalizer.In this sce- MA 01760;(508)647-7000,
FAX:(508)647-
nario. most of those decisions are 700l, www.mathworks.
com.
Y S T E Ml lS
APRIL2OO3 W I R E T E S S ESIGlI