1-4244-0983-7/07/$25.

00 2007 IEEE ICICS 2007

Improved Performance of APSK Modulation Scheme
for Sattellite System

Jae-Hyun Kim, Cheon Sig Sin, Sang Uk Lee, Jae Hoon Kim
Satellite Ground Control Technology Team
Electronics and Telecommunication Research Institute, Daejeon, 305-700, Korea
Email: longinus@etri.re.kr, cssin@etri.re.kr, slee@etri.re.kr, jhkim@etri.re.kr


AbstractThis paper propose new bit mapping based on
Amplitude Phase Shift Keying (APSK) modulation with
application to satellite broadband communications in the DVB-S2
standard. The APSK modulation outperforms classical 16-QAM
and 16-PSK over a typical satellite nonlinear channel due to its
intrinsic robustness against the High Power Amplifier (HPA)
nonlinear characteristics. The proposed bit mapping considers
non-linearity of HPA in the APSK modulation and the
performance of APSK modulation for the proposed bit mapping
has been compared to the conventional bit mapping.
KeywordsAPSK modulation, bit mapping, HPA
I. INTRODUCTION
Recently, in the european digital video broadcasting, new
standard DVB-S2 constituted into the standard for wideband
satellite services provides the transfer efficiency and the highly
reliable transmission in the same environment as the current
DVB-S transmission mode. DVB-S2 within the bandwidth and
signal power of the given satellite transponder provides the
high transmission capacity and the various services through
the link margin improved by the development of the spectrally-
efficient high-order modem and high efficiency codec.
In a satellite, the transmission technique of the high-order
modulation having the high transfer efficiency was essential for
the communication and broadcast services including HDTV
and multimedia communication, and etc. The APSK
modulation scheme was adopted by intrinsic robustness over a
typical satellite nonlinear channel in the DVB-S2 [1], [2]. The
APSK exists in various modulation scheme (4+12 APSK, 5+11
APSK, 6+10 APSK, 1+5+10 APSK, etc.) having the different
signal constellation. Among them, 4+12 APSK and 4+12+16
APSK which is the modulation scheme which shows the most
good performance in case of considering the nonlinear
characteristics of an amplifier were adopted in DVB-S2 [3],
[4].
In this paper, we propose the new bit mapping which is
suitable for the non-linearity of HPA such as AM/AM and AM
/ PM. Moreover, the affect that the proposed bit mapping has
an effect on the bit error probability is analyzed. This paper is
organized as follows. Section describes Saleh model
generally used to HPA model of the transmission unit, and
review system model which has the nonlinear characteristic. In
Section , the changes of the signal constellation according to
the nonlinear characteristic of an amplifier and decision area
are shown. The new bit mapping considering this is proposed.
In Section , we analyze the effect of proposed bit mapping
according to the input back-off (IBO) of an amplifier, and
finally some conclusions are drawn in Section .
II. SYSTEM MODEL

S/P
Information
bit
APSK
Modulator
log
2
M
HPA
AWGN
APSK
Demodulator
P/S
log
2
M

Fig. 1. System Model

In Fig. 1, the system model represents the process of being
demodulated in the receiver after the APSK modulated signal is
transmitted under the AWGN (Additive White Gaussian Noise)
channel through HPA. HPA is used in the various wireless
telecommunication devices including the transponder of a
satellite, the transmission of the earth station, the base station
of the mobile communication, and etc. The various HPA is
applied to according to use. In this paper, the TWTA
(Travelling Wave Tube Amplifier) used in DVB-S2 is
appointed as the model of an amplifier. When TWTA operate
on the maximum power, the amplitude and phase of the input
signal according to the signal level are distorted by the
AM/AM and AM/PM, and these distortions bring about the
degradation of the error performance. The general model
among theoretical models expressing mathematically for the
non-linearity is Saleh model showed in Fig.2 [5].


0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
1
1.1
1.2
Input Voltage (normalized)
o
u
tp
u
t V
o
lta
g
e
(n
o
rm
a
liz
e
d
)
( ) A r

0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2
0
5
10
15
20
25
Input Voltage (normalized)
o
u
tp
u
t P
h
a
s
e
(d
e
g
re
e
s
)
( ) r

Fig. 2. AM/AM and AM/PM characteristics

III. PROPOSED BIT MAPPING

: Decision Boundaries
: Signal points through linear power amp.
: Signal points through nonlinear power amp.
I

Fig. 3. 4+12 APSK constellation and Decision region for non-linearity

As shown in Fig. 3, while 4+12 APSK modulated signal
passes through HPA, the signal constellation is changed with
the AM/AM, and the AM/PM characteristic, where a priori
probabilities of all the signal points are supposed to be equally
likely. The optimum decision region about signal constellation
is determined about the signal passing through HPA. And we
are seen that the error performance according to optimum
decision region becomes bad. Moreover, after passing through
HPA, it can look at that the point of the inner ring and point on
the diagonal in outside becomes closer. The distance between
points becomes closer as the non-linearity of HPA is enlarged.
Therefore, if the appropriate bit mapping considering the
characteristic of HPA is done, the bit mapping which has the
performance which is better than the bit mapping of the DVB-
S2 standard can be drawn.
Presently, in the various modulation scheme, if the gray
mapping in which 1 bit difference for adjacency symbol comes
out is applied, as to the bit mapping allocated for each symbol,
bit error probability can show the most good performance.
However, as to the APSK modulation scheme, the signal
constellation cannot apply the gray mapping which is perfect
because of being not in the symmetry. Therefore, when a bit is
assigned in order to be near to the gray mapping, because the
signal constellation of 4+12 APSK is nearly symmetry, the bit
pattern closer to the gray mapping in comparison with the other
16-APSK modulation scheme can be applied. If the new bit
mapping shown in Fig. 4 is applied, the performance which is
better than the bit mapping which determines in a standard is
shown.

I
Q
1100
1101
1110
1111
0000
0100
1000 1010
0010
0110
0101 0111
0001 0011
1001 1011

I
Q
1100
1101
1110
1111
0100
0101
0000 1000
1010
0010
0001 0110
1001 0111
1011 0011

(a) Conventional 4+12 APSK (b) Proposed 4+12 APSK
Fig. 4. bit mapping proposed in the 16-APSK

For proposed 4+12 APSK bit mapping and conventional bit
mapping, altogether, the bit difference between points of inner
and outer ring are the same. However, in the proposed bit
mapping the bit difference between the point of the inner ring
and surrounding points on the diagonal in outside become 2
bits. in the conventional bit mapping the bit difference
between the point of the inner ring and point on the diagonal in
outside becomes 2 bits. Because the distance between the point
of the inner ring and point on the diagonal in outside become
closer as surrounding points, we can know that the bit error
probability of the conventional bit mapping becomes bad.
Moreover, because the distance between the point of the inner
ring and point on the diagonal in outside become closer
according to IBO of HPA, the bit error probability of the
conventional bit mapping becomes worse. Therefore, in case of
the linear amplifier, it nearly does not have the performance
difference of each other but we can show that the performance
of proposed bit mapping as the non-linearity increase of an
amplifier is better.
32-APSK modulation scheme, because of being the form in
which the 16-points in outside 4+12 APSK, is not different
from the case of 4+12 APSK. However, as shown in Fig. 5, the
points of outer ring and middle ring at the signal constellation
become close unlike the case of 4+12 APSK in case the
nonlinear characteristic of HPA is considered. The bit mapping
proposed in figure 6 according to the method to be proposed
the bit mapping of 4+12 APSK become 1 bit difference in the
inner ring and middle ring. And the bit difference between the
point of the inner ring and point on the diagonal in outside
becomes 2 bits. the points of the middle ring and outer ring
closed according to IBO of HPA become 1 bit difference.


Fig. 5. 4+12+16 APSK constellation and Decision region for non-linearity

I
Q
10001
00010
10100
10110
11001
01000
01001 11101
01100
11100
01010
11110
11011
01110
01011
11111
10101
10111 10011
10000
00000
00001 00101
00100
01111
00110
00011 00111
10010
11000
11010
01101

I
Q
11000
10001
00010
01010
01100
11101
00100 11100
10110
00110
10101
01110
11111
11110
10111
01111
11010
11011 11001
01001
01000
00000 10000
10010
00111
01011
10011 00011
00001
01101
00101
10100

(a) Conventional 4+12+16 APSK (b) Proposed 4+12+16 APSK
Fig. 6. bit mapping proposed in the 32-APSK

IV. RESULT AND ANALYSIS
The error performance in the APSK modulation scheme
changes according to the ring ratio because the signal
constellation is distributed at the ring shape. The error
performance according to the ring ratio is analyzed and the
optimum ring ratio can be found [6]. 4+12 APSK and 4+12+16
APSK are the optimum ring ratio in 2.47 and 2.43, 3.93. The
bit error probability could be exactly measured based on the
optimum ring ratio. Considering the nonlinear characteristic of
HPA, IBO is given with 0dB, 5dB and that the value of
AM/AM and AM/PM is different. As shown in Fig. 7, 16-
APSK can look that the performance difference between 4+12
APSK applying the conventional bit mapping and proposed bit
mapping as IBO is less appear very much. However, 32-APSK
can look at that the difference of a performance is decreased as
the SNR (signal noise ratio) is enlarged. This is due to become
close than the inner ring and middle ring in the points between
the outer ring and the middle ring if the amplifier consider non-
linearity. Therefore, the proposed bit mapping can see the most
big effect in case of 16-APSK. 32-APSK can look at the little
performance improvement effect.
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
10
-5
10
-4
10
-3
10
-2
10
-1
10
0
E
b
/N
0
[dB]
B
E
R
Conventional 4+12 APSK
Proposed 4+12 APSK
linear amp.
IBO = 2dB
IBO = 0dB
Fig. 7. BER of the proposed bit mapping in the 16-APSK
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
10
-5
10
-4
10
-3
10
-2
10
-1
10
0
E
b
/N
0
[dB]
B
E
R
Conventional 4+12+16 APSK
Proposed 4+12+16 APSK
linear amp.
IBO = 5dB
IBO = 2dB
Fig. 8. BER of the proposed bit mapping in the 32-APSK

V. CONCLUSION
Recently, APSK was adopted as the high order modulation
in order to guarantee the high transfer efficiency in the DVB-
S2 because intrinsic robustness in the distortion of a
transmission data due to the nonlinear characteristics of HPA.
In this paper, we look into the change of the signal
constellation and propose the new bit mapping fitting for the
changed signal constellation if the nonlinear characteristic of
HPA is taken into consideration. In the 16-APSK it had the
performance improvement due to the proposed bit mapping. It
had the little performance improvement in 32-APSK.
Therefore, in case of being applied to the satellite system using
HPA it can obtain the error performance which is better than
the conventional method and the bit mapping proposed in this
paper be helpful in the receiver design.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work was supported by the IT R&D program of
MIC/IITA. [2007-S-301-01, Development of Global

Navigation Satellite System Ground Station and Search And
Rescue Beacon Technologies]
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[5] A. Saleh, "Frequency-Independent and Frequency-Dependent
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[6] Riccardo De Gaudenzi, Alfonso Martinez Vincente, Beatrice
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