May 2003 doc.: IEEE 802.

11-03/457

Use of EVM to Measure Rx Output

Signal Quality
Brian Hart, Phil Ryan, David Skellern (Cisco Systems)
skellern@cisco.com, brianh@cisco.com, pjr@cisco.com
TGk May 2003

Submission Slide 1 Hart/Ryan/Skellern Cisco

 May 2003 doc.: IEEE 802.11-03/457

Why EVM?
• Strongly support the use of a measurement to quantify the quality of the
signal that is able to be recovered by a particular receiver
– for the many good reasons presented in Joe Kwak’s presentation in doc: IEEE
802.11-03/218r2 (file 11-03-218r2-K-PSNI_Measurement_V2.ppt)
• EVM is the appropriate measurement basis for this purpose
– It works for all digital modulations
– It has the desired properties specified on slides 9 & 10 of doc: IEEE 802.11-
03/218r2
– It can provide a direct indication of observed S/(N+I) considering all channel
impairments and implementation losses when measured at the demodulator
– It is defined already in the standard as a signal quality measure
– Commercial EVM measurement equipment is available.
• Allowing flexibility in the basis of the measurements, as is possible in the
PSNI proposal, will reduce the usefulness of the PSNI concept (just as
flexibility in RSSI has led to the need for something like RCPI)
• A derived quantity representing observed analog S/(N+I) is unnecessary
• We should just use EVM rather than invent a new measure
Submission Slide 2 Hart/Ryan/Skellern Cisco
 May 2003 doc.: IEEE 802.11-03/457

Constellation Diagram
• Pre-eminent tool in debugging digital communication systems
• Captures all the degradations present on a communications
link
– in proportion to the impact they have
– at a point where the cumulative degradation is easy to estimate
– includes: quantisation, non-ideal converters, clock frequency offsets
and phase noise, carrier frequency offsets and phase noise, power-
amplifier distortions, multipath, co-channel interference, adjacent
channel interference, other interference, thermal noise, and poor
receiver algorithms.
• Is used for numerous purposes, eg
– can indicate whether synchronisation and equalisation are operating
correctly
– can provide an indication of the C/N of the link

Submission Slide 3 Hart/Ryan/Skellern Cisco

 May 2003 doc.: IEEE 802.11-03/457

EVM
in 802.11 standard
• Using the constellation diagram in this way leads to a quantity
called Error Vector Magnitude or EVM
• The 802.11a standard defines the EVM for a multi-packet
average in section 17.3.9.7.
• The EVM of a single packet is determined from the received
complex constellation points as follows:
– (the sum of the squared errors between the received and transmitted
constellation points) normalised by (the ensemble average of the sum of
the squared transmitted constellation points).
• The 802.11b standard defines a related quantity for DSSS and
CCK in section 18.4.7.8.
• These EVM definitions are used to test transmitter accuracy, and
therefore assume an ideal channel and high-quality receiver.
Submission Slide 4 Hart/Ryan/Skellern Cisco
 May 2003 doc.: IEEE 802.11-03/457

Extending the Use of EVM

• If real-world channels and receivers are substituted then the
EVM definition still applies.
• EVM now applies to the whole communications link
• Experience shows that EVM or an equivalent measure is useful
for many purposes
• In 802.11 environments, the MAC receives DSSS, CCK and
OFDM packets.
• It is most convenient if the three modulation schemes report the
same EVM-related measure when operating over an AWGN
channel at the same C/N.
• Standardization ensures this and accordingly we recommend it
for 802.11k
Submission Slide 5 Hart/Ryan/Skellern Cisco
 May 2003 doc.: IEEE 802.11-03/457

EVM Proposal
• Calculate EVM as:
10 log10 ( "the ensemble average of the sum of the squared transmitted
constellation points" / ("the sum of the squared errors between the received and
estimated transmitted constellation points" )
• For 802.11a signals, the constellation is obtained as per section 17.3.9.7 a)-
g), except
(i) that there is no requirement that the receiver has any particular accuracy, and
(ii) it should be permissible to calculate the EVM over the data subcarriers only (i.e.
omit the pilot subcarriers) and/or over the Signal field only.
• For 802.11b signals, process the signal by an actual receiver until samples of
synchronised and equalised DSSS/CCK chips are obtained, then compare
them to their estimated transmitted chip values (i.e. for 11b we have BPSK or
QPSK chip constellations).
• [Minor problem: this measure gets more positive for better channels, and is
strictly an *Inverse* EVM - but it could be argued that it is more natural for
a larger number to indicate better performance]
Submission Slide 6 Hart/Ryan/Skellern Cisco
 May 2003 doc.: IEEE 802.11-03/457

EVM Encoding
• Encode as 8 signed bits in two's complement with 0.5
dB per step.
• Range represented is thus -64.0 to +63.5 dB.
– Negative EVMs arise with 1 Mbit/s DSSS.
– EVMs of 32 dB and above are not unlikely for 802.11a and
therefore a positive limit of 63.5 dB is justified.
• A resolution of 0.5 dB is adequate for most purposes
• An accuracy of ±1 dB in reporting the EVM is allowed

Submission Slide 7 Hart/Ryan/Skellern Cisco