Code-Aware Carrier Phase Noise Compensation on Turbo-Coded Spectrally-Efficient High-Order Modulations

Wideband satellite communication systems suffer considerably from the slow phase noise fluctuations of the carrier frequency due to imperfections in the transmitter and receiver oscillators. The question is further exacerbated (and therefore demanding as for the system performance degradation is concerned) when low cost RF oscillators are adopted. One of the most efficient approach we can envisage is to compensate the phase noise effects at the receiver by exploiting some form of tracking and compensation algorithms. This paper is devoted to the design and the performance analysis of a low cost phase noise estimation technique. Periodically inserting into the data stream sub-blocks of pilot symbols allows to estimate the samples of the phase noise process. The estimation procedure is further refined by exploiting the soft decisions provided by the turbo decoder. Simulation results show that the structure in which the burst is organized can be optimized and the resultant performance degradation turns out to be quite negligible with respect ideal AWGN transmission at the expense of a low additional complexity.