Re: [Discuss-gnuradio] Gaining RSSI, SNR, CNR or BER information

[Johnathan Corgan]

On Fri, May 9, 2008 at 2:22 AM, Bastian Preindl <address@hidden> wrote:

> As we're not the operator of the satellites, it is impossible to know
> the data we'll receive beforehand and make a comparison afterwards to
> calculate the bit error rate. So I have to count on information I can
> gain from the received signal characteristics.

If you use the USRP, you will obtain a complex baseband representation
of your satellite signal.  From this, you will need to implement a
demodulator for the particular signal involved.  From the output of
the demodulator, there are several ways to estimate signal-to-noise
ratio that do not require prior knowledge of the bit pattern.  From
the signal-to-noise ratio, you can estimate the theoretical bit error
rate for the type of modulation in use.  See:

http://www.comsoc.org/comm/private/2000/oct/1681_48comm10-pauluzzi.html

GNU Radio is very suitable for this sort of thing.

-- 
Johnathan Corgan
Corgan Enterprises LLC
http://corganenterprises.com/