Performance analysis of different phase shift keying modulation schemes in aeronautical channels

Abstract This paper undertakes the performance evaluation and comparison of different phase shift keying (PSK) modulation schemes in aeronautical channels. Specifically, bit error rate (BER) curves and outage probabilities of various modulation schemes in high dynamic environments are investigated by means of numerical analysis and computer simulation. Simulation results show that the performance of all modulation schemes degrades with the increase of the power ratio or dynamic factor, and that differential quadrature phase shift keying (DQPSK), differential 8 phase shift keying (D8PSK), 16 and 64 differential amplitude and phase shift keying (DAPSK) perform better than other same order modulation schemes, respectively. As the conclusion, the differential modulation schemes are more suitable for the aeronautical channels in order to withstand the Doppler shift and the changing rate of the Doppler.