Effect of Partial-Band Interference on Receiver Estimation of C/N0: Theory

Abstract : Testing the response of C/A code receivers to partial-band interference (continuous Gaussian interference whose power is concentrated in part of the front-end bandwidth) has included examining how receivers measure and report the effect of such interference. This paper considers two fundamentally different ways that receivers measure and report the effect of interference on signal quality, demonstrating that in non-white noise the measures are not the same. While the effective C/N0 reliably measures the effect of interference on a receiver, the precorrelation C/N0 is not reliable. Specifically, precorrelation estimation of N0 does not properly account for the spectrum of the interference. Depending on the spectrum of the interference, precorrelation estimates may be accurate, or may over-estimate the degradation caused by interference, or may under-estimate the degradation caused by interference. Theoretical and numerical results are provided and compared to some measured data.