Quadratic Detectors for Noise-Immune Detection of Modulated Signals

Jing Fang and Les E. Atlas

Interactive Systems Design Laboratory
Department of Electrical Engineering, FT- 10
University of Washington
Seattle, WA 98195
Abstract

and quadratic detectors measure short-time energy

variation so as to estimate frequency or phase shifts. Based
on our past observations of spectral splitting of conekemel time-frequency representation (CK-TFR) on
speech signals coincident with the phase discontinuity in
phase shift keyed signals [2] and our knowledge of the
possibility of independent high resolution in both time and
frequency achieved from proper time-frequency
distributions (TFDs) [6,7], we have developed quadratic
detectors. These detectors provide good frequency
selectivity and efficient noise suppression without or with
less smoothing of temporal structure than LTI systems.
In the paper, we introduce the concept of quadratic
detectors, demonstrate advantages of quadratic detectors
with different applications in communications, and
discuss subsidiary problems of quadratic detector designs
which can give better noise-immune detection of phase or
frequency shifts.

Quadratic detectors [1-5] have been shown to have

good frequency selectivity, short transient response, and
effective noise suppression [4,5]. Here we demonstrate
how phase shifts in phase-ship-keyed signals are easily
detected even in strong background noise, and how shortdurationfrequency variation can be accurately evaluated.
Moreovec design constraints of quadratic detectors are
discussed and trade-offs are presented. Our simulations
showed that the quadratic detector provides a simple
method for the detection of phase shifts and frequency
shifs in clean or noisy environments. These detectors and
the design technique also have general signal processing
applications.

1. Introduction

2. Quadratic detector

The estimation of signal energy is an important part of

physics and Fourier theory. To estimate the energy of a
noisy signal such as band-limited signals in
communications, a commonly used technique is a standard
energy detector (which is linear time-invariant (LTI)
filtering followed by magnitude-squared detection).
However, due to the temporal response of the LTI filtering,
this energy estimation is smeared in time.
The determination of unknown phase shifts of phaseshift-keyed (PSK) signals and unknown frequency
variation of frequency-shift-keyed (FSK) signals is an
important problem in communications. Detecting or
precisely determining these phase and frequency shifts in
noisy signals is potentially useful for the identification of
the type of emitter from which the signal originated.
Matched filters have long been used to decode signals in a
noisy background. They are optimal detectors when the
noise is Gaussian distributed. However, they require
complete knowledge of the transmitted signal to
demodulate received signals.
Due to the relation between instantaneous energy and
instantaneous frequency, time-frequency representations

Our concept of quadratic detectors provides a

structure that integrates frequency filtering (e.g. a
bandpass filter) with energy detection (e.g. a magnitudesquared detector). These detectors ideally satisfy desired
properties that physical energy possesses. Paralleling the
common methodology in quadratic time-frequency
representations (TFRs), we define the following properties
for an energy detector: 1) real output; 2) time-shift
invariance; 3) zero frequency interference; 4) finite time
support; 5 ) non-negative output; 6) independent time and
frequency resolution; and 7) output proportional to the
product of squared magnitude and squared frequency
(Teagers energy property).
In general, a quadratic detector can be expressed by
Y ( t ) = Q [ x ( t )I

where x(r) is real input,

1427

1058-6393/93 $03.00 0 1993 IEEE

e[.]is quadratic operator, and

detector is designed by taking the kernel [#I, namely,

q ( q,c2) is the kemel of quadratic detector. Equation (1) is

also called a quadratic time-invariant transformation [8].
The finite discrete time version of a quadratic detector
can be described by

cc
M

y[nI =

Y [ ~ I=

C
m 1 --M
-

h ~ ~ m , - m ~ l ~ r [ m ~ , m ~ ~
m,=-M

Im,+mzl<-

q[ml,m,Ir[ml,m,l

m , = - M m z = -M

(5)

L+ I
2

r [ m , ,m21 = x [ n - m , 1 x [ n - m21

(2)

=X[nlTQX[nl
r [ m l ,m,] = x [ n - m , ] x [ n -m,]

where 2M > L and h[m] is a (4M+l)-point symmetric set

of quadratic detector coeficients (i.e., 2M+1 unique
values). These coefficients can be chosen using standard
FIR filter design procedures in which y [ n ] will have a
magnitude response to single or swept sine waves [2]

where M is an integer indicating finite duration, X[n]is a

column vector of signal x [ n ] , and Q is a coefficient matrix.
X[n]and Q are defined by

M- 1

(6)
I

X[n] =

Note that a conventional LTI definition of frequency

response will not hold for the quadratic formulation in
equation (1) and (5). However, the response to single sine
waves swept from -K to K will uniquely characterize the
detector of equation (5).
Figure 1 demonstrates that a quadratic detector
(Equation (5)) can provide substantially shorter rise times
than a conventional energy detector as well as higher
resolution in frequency. The input signal, sampled at a 16
kHz, consists of one 2 kHz single tone of short duration
and two time-separated linear chirps sweeping from 2 to 4
kHz and from 2.5 to 3.5 kHz, respectively. The second
chirp totally overlaps the time duration of the tone.
Comparisons were made between a standard energy
detector and a quadratic detector with the same analysis
window. The coefficients were designed by truncating a
Fourier series to give a bandpass frequency response with
a 3 kHz center frequency and a 1 kHz bandwidth. The
coefficients applied to the left column and the right
column have a length (number of unique values) of 63 and
255, respectively. This implies that there is shorter
frequency transition or higher frequency selectivity in the
right column than in the left column. Referring to the
figure, the standard energy detector provides a nonnegative output, but suffers from a time and frequency
resolution trade-off, and also needs further smoothing for
energy detection. The quadratic detector, however,
advantageously compromises among all the constraints
for achieving ideal properties and provides satisfactory
independent resolution in time and frequency. For a noisy
signal, the quadratic detector also exhibits bandpass
filtering, noise suppression, and detection with
significantly less smearing in time, especially around the
ideal transition times. When an application requires
narrow bandpass filtering, the quadratic detector will
demonstrate the advantage of significant filtered
waveform enhancement.

and

Q=

To satisfy the desired properties, some restrictions

need to be applied to the kemel Q, which include: 1) Q is
real for a real representation; 2) Q is a positive-semi
definite matrix for non-negativity; 3 ) Q is aToeplitz matrix
for output without frequency interference; 4) Q is non-zero
in double-diamond with respect to cross-diagonal for weak
finite time support [+I; 5 ) Q is non-zero only in the cross
(the column q(.,O) and the row q(O,.))for strong finite time
support ([+I);6) Q is non-zero only in the cross-diagonal
([/I); and 7) Q is a matrix whose two-dimensional Fourier
transform is zero along the diagonal line (U = v) and
proportional to squared frequency along the crossdiagonal line (U = -v) in the bi-frequency plane (u,v), for
Teagers energy property [5].
A perfect quadratic detector possesses all the
properties mentioned above. Unfortunately, the
inconsistency of constraints of all of the above properties
shows that it is impossible to integrate all these properties
into one single time-invariant quadratic detector. For
example, to completely eliminate frequency interference
would sacrifice finite time support. Therefore,
compromises have to be made according to specific
applications. Considering the properties of frequency
interference elimination, finite time support, and timefrequency resolution independence, a simple quadratic

1428

WIVlfOrm
(chirp. and
8tOM)

con.

k0m.l
timo-froqwncy
npnsont.(kn

frequency by taking the quotient of outputs of these two

detectors. A simple adaptive quadratic detector can also be
implemented by updating quadratic coefficients based on
the output of a quadratic frequency detector.
...............e
........................
= ....... - -.~-----..
- - - + - - - : - - - A
- - .-....-....-..: - .
Figure 2 shows an example of a quadratic detector for
5

Noisr-frr BPSK

Ideal output
Wav.fonns

Stmdard
energy detector
(sue 63)
Qoadntic
dotactor
(sir. 63-31)

BPSK with OdB SNR

energy
detector

Standsrd
one ydetector
(%o 255)
Quadratic
dotector

Quadratic
dolector

(size 255-31)

Figure 2: A comparison between the

standard energy detector and the
quadratic detector on BPSK signals
with and without noise. Note that the
three significant negative peaks in the
output of quadratic detector which
precisely indicate 180 degree phase
points, even for the OdB SNR noisy
signal.

Noisy wavrlorm
(SNR 4dB)
Strmdard
ener y detector
&e 255)
Quadratic
dotector
(sim 255-31)

Figure 1: Comparison of standard energy

detector and quadratic detector (Equation
(5)). TFTO: time-frequency resolution
trade-off. Note that a quadratic detector
offers independent time and frequency
resolution. II exhibits less smearing in time
around the ideal transition times even in
the noisy case.

3. Quadratic detectors for

detection and demodulation

phase-shifts

For a sinusoidal signal x (t) = Acos (ut), the

instantaneousenergy e(?)is proportional toA2u2.Since the
parameters of amplitude and phase are often a modulated
in communications, the instantaneous energy of modulated
signal would reflect parameter changes. For signals as PSK
or FSK, signal energy variations correspond to phase or
frequency shifts. However, for signals as QAM
(quadrature amplitude modulation), an energy separation
algorithm is required to detect both amplitude and phase
(or frequency) changes. Quadratic detectors estimate
instantaneous energy. To estimate instantaneous
frequency, two quadratic detectors can be used with
coefficients designed to give outputs proportional to
squared magnitude only and proportional to both squared
magnitude and squared frequency, respectively. A
quadratic frequency detector provides instantaneous

phase shifts demodulation of a binary phase-shift-keyed

(BPSK) signal as compared to a standard energy detector.
The same choice of coefficients (with an analysis window
size of 16 and a time length (L) of 2. a center frequency
(canier) of 100 Hz, a bandwidth of 35 Hz, and a sampling
frequency df 1 kHz) was used on both the standard energy
detector and the quadratic detector. The significant
negative peaks in the output of quadratic detector indicate
180 degree phase shifts. This simple detector also shows
good performance in the noise environment. The bit error
rate was measured as 6.55%on 0 dB SNR (signal-to-noise
ratio) noisy BPSK signals.
Figure 3 is an example of a quadratic frequency
detector used for demodulating phase shifts in a
quadrature phase shift keyed (QPSK) signal. The data was
sampled at 1 kHz. Adaptive quadratic detectors were
designed with an analysis window size of 31 and a time
window length (L) of 9, a center frequency (carrier) of 300
Hz. In the output of quadratic frequency detector on a
clean QPSK signal, the smaller peaks indicate 90 degree
phase shifts and the larger peaks indicate 180degree phase
shifts. Note that +180" phase shift is the same as -180
degree phase shift.
For a complex signal, quadratic detectors can be
applied to in-phase and quadrature-phase signals
separately and then a decision can be made based on
decoding these two outputs.

1429

inlomion

3?12YJ2

Cp
k- n QPSK 0

Wideband
apoctrogram
Con. k o m l
ti-fmqwncy
roprorntation
on OPSK
Quadratic
f uoncy
3octor
on OPSK

I
1

Poaitlvo TFD

Nola QPSK
(SNk 3dB)

Ouadratic
froquoncy
dotoctor

Quadratic
froquoncy
detoctor
on nolay OPSK

FM wavoform
(zoomod display)
Poak dotoctor

FM
(zoomod diaplay)

Figure 3: Quadratic detectors for

phase-shift demodulation of QPSK
signals. Note that the peaks in the
output of quadratic frequency detector
indicate phase shif?s. Larger peaks
imply larger phase shifts. Clear peaks
are also displayed even for the 3 dB
SNR noisy signal.

4. Quadratic
detector
demodulation

for

Narrow-band
apodro ram
(zoomod Asplay)
I

Podtivo TFD
(zoomod display)

frequency

Ouadmtic
Iroquonc dstoctor
(zoonwt!dirplpy)

In communications, frequency variation is commonly

used for either coding information such as in continuous-

Figure 4: Demonstration of quadratic

detector on separating AM-FM signal.
Note that quadratic detector responses
rapid/y follow the hopped frequency.

phase frequency-shift-keyed (CPFSK) signals or for

avoiding the interception of transmitted signals as with a
hopped carrier. A matched filter bank can be used to track
carrier excursion. However, for unknown signals
(especially for signals with small frequency variation in a
short interval), carrier drift tracking or frequency
modulation decoding is difficult. However, quadratic
detectors as well as proper time-frequency representations
[6,7]can provide high resolution in both time and
frequency so that easy interception of such a signal is
possible.
In Figure 4, a frequency modulated (FM) signal was
sampled at 8 kHz. The carrier was centered at 2 lcHz and
modulated by a rectangular pulse train with a 1 ms pulse

interval, 5 levels, and 31.25 Hz frequency deviation (in a

range of 125 Hz in total). Such a small variation in
frequency in a short duration makes a wide-band
spectrogram (with 1 ms analysis window) unable to
precisely resolve frequency hopping positions and forces a
narrow-band spectrogram (with 4 ms analysis window) to
smear frequency variation. However, the positive TFD [6]
obtained by deconvolving these two spectrograms
globally displays these time and frequency changes with

1430

relatively high resolution, and the quadratic detector

exhibits the possibility of detecting such a small
frequency variation without sacrificing temporal
resolution.
For noisy data, an adaptive quadratic detector is
needed to suppress noise and achieve good performance.
Figure 5 illustrates a simple adaptive quadratic detector
Clean

Spectrogram

Noisy

Spectrogram

shown to have fine temporal response, good frequency

selectivity, and efficient noise suppression. These simple
systems also provide easy detection of phase shifts and
frequency shifts. Specially, the independent high
resolution in time and frequency quadratic detectors
provided is potentially useful for unknown signal
identification. These detectors are also important for
general signal processing.
Although quadratic detectors are not optimal, their
simple structures and easy detection schemes are
beneficial for real-time preprocessing. For phase
detection, since a quadratic detector responds to phase
shift not absolute phase, a decoder is required to
demodulate signals. Moreover, because quadratic
detectors are filter-type detectors, longer quadratic
coefficient length implies that higher resolution could be
achieved.

Acknowledgments

Quadratic
detector
FM-1
f1r2kHz
Af = 125 Hz
TilOms
AM-2

We wish to thank Prof. James Ritcey, Mr. James

Pitton, and Mr. Karl Griep for their helpful discussion and
for providing the code for generating data. This research
was supported by the U.S. Office of Research and
Development, the Boeing Commercial Airplane
Company, and the Washington Technology Center.

Quadratic
frequency
detector

,/lM

FM-2
kHz
Af I125 Hz
TrlOms

f2 I 2.32

Ouadratlc
detector

Quadratic
frequency
detector

References

Figure 5: Illustration of quadratic

detectors on separati6n of two closely
spaced frequency components. Note th8t
quadratic defectors not only separate
closely spaced frequency components
but also resolve hopped frequency
carriers, even in noise.

J. F. Kaiser, On a Simple Algorithm to Calculate the

Energy of a Signal, IEEE Pmc. ICASSPW,
Albuquerque, N M , Apr. 1990.
L. Atlas, J. Fang, P. Loughlin, and W. Music, Resolution
Advantages of Quadratic Signal Processing, Proc. SPIE
Int. Sym., Con5 1566. San Diego, CA, pp. 134-143, July
21-26, 1991.
L. Atlas and J. Fang, Quadratic Detectors for General
Nonlinear Analysis of Speech, IEEE Proc. ICASSP92,
San Francisco, CA, pp. 11-9-11-12, March 23-26, 1992.

on separating two slow varying amplitude modulation

(AM) signals frequency modulated (FM) with two
closely spaced carriers. Both AM signals were sampled
at 8 kHz. Two carriers were modulated by rectangular
pulse trains both with a 10 ms pulse interval, 5 levels,
and a 31.25 Hz frequency deviation (in a range of 125Hz
in total), but one was centered at 2 kHz and the other was
at 2.32 kHz. The composite signal was embedded in 10
dB white Gaussian noise background. Two simple
quadraticdetectors,both with an analysis window size of
75 and a time window length of 9, were applied to the
data. The results show that the simple adaptive quadratic
detectors are able to separate two closely spaced
frequency components while introducing less smoothing
in both time and frequency even for 10 dB SNR data.

J. Fang, L. Atlas, and G. Bernard, Advantages of

Cascaded Quadratic Detectors for Analysis of
Manufacturing Sensor Data, Intemationul Symposium
on Time-Frequency and Time-Scale Analysis, Kctoria,
BC, Oct. 2-4, 1992.

J. Fang and L. Atlas, Quadratic Detectors for Energy

Representations, submitted to IEEE Trans. on Sig. Proc.
J. Pitton, L. Atlas, and P. Loughlin, Deconvolution for
Positive Time-Frequency Distributions, the 27th
Asilomar Conference, CA, Nov 1-3. 1993.

P. Loughlin, J. Pitton, and L. Atlas, Minimum CrossEntropy Positive lime-Frequency Distributions,

submitted to IEEE Trans. on Signal Processing.

5. Discussion and conclusion

W. A. Gardner, Statistical Spectral Analysis. Chapter IO,

Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1988.

As demonstrated above, quadratic detectors are

1431