Bit timing with pulse distortion and intersymbol interference

Pulse distortion and intersymbol interference due to insufficient filtering in PCM and PSK channels cause performance degradation in terms of both bit error probabilities and timing errors. This paper reports the results of a study analyzing these effects on bit timing subsystems. Consideration is given to both the filter-rectifier and transition tracking type of timing subsystem. Although both these systems perform similarly in high SNR and ideal pulse models, pulse distortion and intersymbol affects each differently. The primary effects in both systems is to cause the presence of an irreducible mean squared timing error due to the intersymbol which limits the ultimate performance. Design procedures to minimize the anomalies of both systems are presented, and indicate modifications of the standard timing subsystems. It is found that specific design directions depend on whether the intersymbol or the receiver noise tends to dominate.