Making the Power Stat CCDF Measurement

Making Measurements

Making the Power Stat CCDF Measurement

Making the Power Stat CCDF Measurement

Purpose

Many of the digitally modulated signals now look noise-like in the time and frequency domain. This means that statistical measurements of the signals can be a useful characterization. Power Complementary Cumulative Distribution Function (CCDF) curves characterize the higher level power statistics of a digitally modulated signal. The curves can be useful in determining design parameters for digital communications systems.

The power statistics CCDF measurement can be affected by many factors. For example, modulation filtering, modulation format, combining the multiple signals at different frequencies, number of active codes and correlation between symbols on different codes with spread spectrum systems. These factors are all related to modulation and signal parameters. Factors like signal compression and expansion by non-linear components, group delay distortion from filtering, and power control within the observation interval also affect the measurement.

Measurement Method

The power measured in power statistics CCDF curves is actually instantaneous envelope power defined by the equation:

P = (I2 + Q2) / Zo

(where I and Q are the quadrature voltage components of the waveform and Zo is the characteristic impedance).

A CCDF curve is defined by how much time the waveform spends at or above a given power level. The percent of time the signal spends at or above the level defines the probability for that particular power level. To make the power statistics CCDF measurement, the transmitter tester uses digital signal processing (DSP) to sample the input signal in the channel bandwidth.

The Gaussian distribution line as the band-limited gaussian noise CCDF reference line, the user-definable reference trace, and the currently measured trace are shown on a semi-log graph. If the currently measured trace is above the user reference trace, it means that the higher peak power levels against the average power are included in the input signal.

For power statistics CCDF measurements using baseband I/Q inputs see “Using Baseband I/Q Inputs (Option B7C)” on page 151.

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Chapter 4

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Agilent Technologies E4406A manual Making the Power Stat CCDF Measurement, Purpose, Measurement Method