The Phase-Locked Loop (PLL), and many of the devices used for frequency and phase tracking, carrier and symbol synchronization, demodulation, and frequency synthesis, are fundamental building blocks in today's complex communications systems. It is therefore essential for both students and practicing communications engineers interested in the design and implementation of modern communication systems to understand and have insight into the behavior of these important and ubiquitous devices. Since the PLL behaves as a nonlinear device (at least during acquisition), computer simulation can be used to great advantage in gaining insight into the behavior of the PLL and the devices derived from the PLL. The purpose of this Synthesis Lecture is to provide basic theoretical analyses of the PLL and devices derived from the PLL and simulation models suitable for supplementing undergraduate and graduate courses in communications. The Synthesis Lecture is also suitable for self study by practicing engineers. A significant component of this book is a set of basic MATLAB-based simulations that illustrate the operating characteristics of PLL-based devices and enable the reader to investigate the impact of varying system parameters. Rather than providing a comprehensive treatment of the underlying theory of phase-locked loops, theoretical analyses are provided in sufficient detail in order to explain how simulations are developed. The references point to sources currently available that treat this subject in considerable technical depth and are suitable for additional study. Download MATLAB codes (.zip) Table of Contents: Introduction / Basic PLL Theory / Structures Developed From The Basic PLL / Simulation Models / MATLAB Simulations / Noise Performance Analysis
About the Author: William H. Tranter is the Bradley Professor of Communications, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. He received the Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Alabama in 1970. He then joined the faculty of the University of Missouri-Rolla. Professor Tranter served as Assistant (1980-84) and Associate (1984-85) Dean of Engineering for Graduate Affairs and Research. In 1985 he was appointed Schlumberger Professor of Electrical Engineering and he continued to serve in that position until his early retirement from the University of Missouri in 1997. In 1997 he joined the Electrical and Computer Engineering faculty of Virginia Tech as the Bradley Professor of Communications. In 1995, Professor Tranter served as an Erskine Fellow at Canterbury University (Christchurch, New Zealand) where he conducted research and developed a course on Computer-Aided Design and Analysis of Communications Systems. Professor Tranter's current area of interest is computer-aided design and performance evaluation of communication systems and simulation techniques with applications to wireless cellular systems. His research efforts have been supported by the NSF, ONR, DARPA, Schlumberger Foundation, NASA, McDonnell-Douglas, Boeing, GE Aerospace, LG Corporation, Raytheon and Batelle Memorial Laboratories. He also has interest in developing computer-based design and analysis tools for research and educational use and was supported by NSF to develop a three-course sequence in wireless communications complete with simulation-based demonstrations and laboratories utilizing MATLAB. Professor Tranter has been very active in professional activities. He served as chair of a number of technical committees within the IEEE Communications Society. From 1988 to 1998 he served as Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications. From 1997-1999 he served the Communications Society as Director of Journals and in 1999 was elected to the Board of Governors. Professor Tranter also served on the IEEE Awards Board and as chair of the Alexander Graham Bell Award Committee. In 2001 Professor Tranter was elected Vice-President, Technical Activities of the IEEE Communications Society. Professor Tranter received an IEEE Centennial Medal in 1984, a Millennium Medal in 2000, the Donald McLellan Meritorious Service Award from the IEEE Communications Society in 2000, and the Publications Exemplary Service Award in 2001. He was elected a Fellow of the IEEE in 1985. Most recently, Professor Tranter served a three-year term at the National Science Foundation as Program Director for the areas of communications, networking, information theory, and coding. Ratchaneekorn Thamvichai received her Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from University of Colorado, Boulder in 2002. She received her M.S. degree and BEng degree in electrical engineering from Stanford University and Chulalongkorn University, respectively. Currently, she is Associate Professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering department at Saint Cloud State University in Minnesota. From 2009 to July 2010, she was a Visiting Research Associate Professor in the Wireless@VT group in the Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Virginia Tech where she had an opportunity to work with Dr. Bose and Dr. Tranter. Her research interests include signal classification and signal processing for cognitive radios and one-dimensional and two-dimensional digital signal processing. Tamal Bose received the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from Southern Illinois University in 1988. After a faculty position at the University of Colorado, he joined Utah State University in 2000, where he served as the Department Head and Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering from 2003-2007. Currently, he is Professor in the Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Virginia Tech. He is the Associate Director of Wireless@VT and Director of the NSF center site WICAT@VT. The research interests of Dr. Bose include signal classification for cognitive radios, channel equalization, adaptive filtering algorithms, and nonlinear effects in digital filters. He is author of the text Digital Signal and Image Processing, John Wiley, 2004. Dr. Bose served as the Associate Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing from 1992 to 1996. He is currently on the editorial board of the IEICE Transactions on Fundamentals of Electronics, Communications and Computer Sciences ( Japan) and the Journal of Electrical and Computer Engineering. He also served on the organizing committees of several international conferences and workshops.