A unified method for approximating and bounding the average bit error probability for spread-spectrum multiple-access communication systems is presented. Various forms of direct-sequence spreadspectrum modulation are considered including binary phase-shift keying, quadriphase-shift keying, and minimum-shift keying. The analysis of the multiple-access interference makes use of a number of moments sufficent to evaluate the error probability with a high degree of accuracy. A computationally efficient algorithm for computing the moments is also given. The subsequent transformation from the moments to the average bit error probability is carried out by means of Gauss-type numerical integration formulas. It is shown that the same approach can be exploited for evaluating two classes of upper and lower bounds on the bit error rate. Finally, some results and comparisons are reported.

A method for evaluating the average error probability in digital fiber optic transmission systems is described. It takes into account the statistical properties of the main impairments that affect the information signal, i.e., shot noise (dark current included), thermal noise, and intersymbol interference. Unlike other methods, the analysis of shot-noise statistics does not entail the second-moment characterization alone, but uses a number of moments sufficient to evaluate the error probability with a high degree of accuracy. For this purpose it is shown how the cumulants of shot noise and intersymbol interference of any order can be computed. The baseband pulse response and the statistical distribution of the avalanche-photodetector gain are assumed to be available. Moreover, techniques for exploiting the cumulants are given; knowledge of the cumulants allows one to compute the probability of error by means of Gaussian numerical integration rules. Finally, some results and comparisons are reported.

Sequence estimation in the presence of additive Gaussian noise and intersymbol interference can be performed by means of discrete Kalman filters. In adaptive receivers for data transmission, the optimal Kalman gains must be computed on-line. A recursive algorithm is presented for this purpose and its performance, i.e., accuracy and computational requirements, is discussed briefly.

A new method is presented to compute the average probability of error in the presence of intersymbol interference and additive noise for multilevel pulse-amplitude-modulation (PAM) and partial-response-coded (PRC) signaling schemes. The method is based upon nonclassical Gauss quadrature rules (GQR) and suffers no limitation on noise statistics, so that it applies also for non-Gaussian noise. Moreover it yields some remarkable advantages as compared with other methods, in particular, with the series expansion method that has recently received considerable attention. Expressions for the truncation error are also given and their derivation is reported in the Appendix. Finally, examples of applications are presented and comparisons with other methods are carried out.

In multilevel bandpass data transmission there is usually a difference between the phase of the carrier signal and the phase of the receiver oscillator, thereby causing imperfect demodulation. The use of nonclassical Gauss quadrature rules (GQR's) allows: 1) a theoretical study of the joint effects of phase jitter, thermal noise, and intersymbol interference on average error probability; and 2) a maximum-precision sampling technique in the simulation of digital communication systems. On this basis, the mean-square-error and zero-forcing equalizers are considered, and their performances evaluated in terms of the average error probability for multilevel pulse-amplitude-modulation (PAM) and partial-response-coded (PRC) signaling schemes.