Noise-Aided Demodulation With One-Bit Comparator for Multilevel Pulse-Amplitude-Modulated Signals

Abstract

This letter proposes a demodulation method using a one-bit comparator for signals processed by multilevel pulse amplitude modulation (PAM). The proposed method is simple and provides an alternative to using an analog-to-digital converter to describe multilevel input signals. Because of the noise present in the transmitted multilevel PAM signal, the two-level output of the one-bit comparator shows different statistical behavior for each level of the signal. Thus, it is possible to detect the signal level, or perform symbol decision, based on the maximum likelihood criterion. The present theoretical analysis reveals that reliable demodulation is possible even with a one-bit comparator if the probability mass function of the two-level outputs of each received symbol plus intentionally added noise is known.