No.

05 December 1999
© AXCERA, LLC

The Basics of EVM and SNR

Never before in the history of television broadcasting has the television engineer been
tasked with such a dynamically changing environment as with the implementation of
digital television (DTV). Many of the digital performance specifications may, at first,
seem to be unrelated to analog specifications but often times upon closer scrutiny,
similarities can be found. This issue of the TechNotes will concentrate on two impor-
tant DTV performance specifications: error vector magnitude (EVM) and digital signal
to noise ratio (SNR). These two specifications will be compared to analogous NTSC
measurements in order to illustrate some commonality between digital and analog
television.

Digital modulation schemes (8-VSB, QAM, QPSK) are subject to the same degrada-
tion caused by upconversion and amplification as are analog signals. After modula-
tion, the digital signal is sinusoidal and will undergo the same degradation that linear
and non-linear distortions impose upon an NTSC signal.

8-VSB and Vector Modulation

An in-depth discussion of every stage of the 8-VSB modulator is beyond the scope
of this paper, but a fundamental understanding of digital modulation and the 8-VSB
modulator are necessary in order to comprehend the concept of EVM. A block dia-
gram of the modulator is shown in figure 1.

The input to the modulator is an Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC)

digital MPEG-2 transport stream with a data rate of approximately 19.39Mbps for-
matted in 8-bit bytes with 188-byte packets of digitized video, audio and ancillary data
per segment. The input interface to a typical modulator may be in the SMPTE-310M
(bnc), serial differential TTL (25 pin D connector) or serial differential ECL (37 pin
D connector) formats. Regardless of the interface, the data has to be arranged in the
MPEG-2 format at the specified data rate.

The data randomizer scrambles the incoming bit stream using a pseudo-random
code. The result of randomization at the output of the modulator is a flat, band-
raised noise-like spectrum with the power randomly and evenly spread across the
symbol bandwidth.

The Reed-Solomon and data interleaver blocks are used as the first steps to forward
error correction (FEC) in the modulator. The actual process is quite sophisticated
and consists of a great deal of digital signal processing. The purpose of FEC is to
add robustness to the signal in order to minimize the effects of noise, interference
and other impairments that occur during signal transmission and propagation to the
receiver.
The Trellis encoding stage “maps” the 8-bit bytes into 3-bit
words and provides additional forward error correction.
Each byte is broken down into four 2-bit words with a
third bit added for FEC. This process is known as 2/3 rate
coding as for every two bits that undergo encoding, three
bits are output. At this point, the 3-bit words are now
referred to as symbols with each being mapped to one of
eight different levels (23=8). The ³8² in 8-VSB refers to the
eight levels or symbols.
The sync insertion and pilot insertion stages are used to
add synchronization information and to insert a partially
suppressed pilot carrier to help aid the receiver in the
reception of the signal. In addition, a training sequence is
inserted in the output stream for use by the receiver’s adap-
tive equalizer.
The vector modulator stage converts the eight mapped
digital symbols to one of eight analog levels centered
at an intermediate frequency (IF) carrier of 44MHz. A
frequency domain representation of the 8-VSB modulated
IF signal is shown in figure 2. Note the flat noise-like ap-
pearance of the signal and the pilot carrier located near the
upper edge of the spectrum.
This display should be somewhat familiar to most broadcast
engineers, as similar methodology has been used for years
to analyze color information of an NTSC signal. Engineers
have been exposed to quadrature and vector modulation
with color transmission but probably have not associated it
with digital modulation schemes. Recall that with NTSC
color television the amplitude of the color subcarrier deter-
mines the saturation of color and the phase determines the
hue much in the same way that the I and Q components of
an 8-VSB signal determine the placement of the symbol on
the constellation diagram.
This is not to say that color phase modulation is identical to
8-VSB, only that they are both forms of vector modulation.
Error Vector Magnitude and
the Constellation Diagram
The vector display of figure 3 can be used as the first step in
defining error vector magnitude. Recall that each symbol is
mapped to one of eight discrete levels or states. Ideally, each
symbol should occur exactly at the intended level as shown in
figure 3. In reality, any number of events (phase noise, non-
linearity, modulation or data errors, etc.) can cause any of the
symbols to shift from their ideal position. Figure 4 illustrates
the displacement of the symbols from the ideal.

Error vector magnitude (EVM) is the measurement or vector,

taken in terms of peak or rms percentages, between the ideal
symbol position and the actual measured position (see figure
5).
This type of modulation scheme is referred to as vec-
tor modulation and can be displayed as a constellation
diagram on the Hewlett Packard vector signal analyzer
(89441A/V) or on the Tektronix (RFA-300). The term
“vector” simply refers to the direction and distance from
the center of a constellation diagram that corresponds to
each of the symbol levels. A vector display (constellation
diagram) for an 8-VSB signal is shown in figure 3.

The display is a plot of the I (in-phase) versus Q (quadra-

ture or 90 degrees out-of-phase) signals. In 8-VSB
modulation only the I signal carries information; the Q
signal is used to help shape the IF signal and to partially
suppress the carrier. Each symbol is mapped onto one of There are eight discrete levels to which the symbols can be
eight possible states and has a vector that corresponds to mapped for 8-VSB modulation. The outer extreme states are
that state. The placement of the symbol on the Q axis is normalized to be at the ± 100% positions. With this con
not significant, as the Q component does not carry symbol
information.
 SNR be 27dB or greater.

SNR can be approximated from EVM by the following

formula:

SNR = 20 log EVM

In order to achieve optimal coverage, it is desirable to have

the value of SNR be as high as possible, but there is a price
to pay in attempting to reach certain values. The curve of
system SNR to receiver carrier to noise ratio (c/n) is asymp-
totic (figure 7) and as such, exceeding the “knee” of the
vention, an ideal percentage can be assigned to each of the curve provides diminishing benefits. Exceeding the ATSC
other possible levels of the modulated signal that corresponds recommended SNR level of 27dB may slightly increase the
to approximately 28.6% between states (200%/7 » 28.6%). coverage area but the benefits can be outweighed by the cost
In order to be able to recover the data, the receiver has to of doing so (higher transmitter power, complex correction
make a decision to which state the symbol belongs. As long circuitry, etc.).
as the receiver interprets the displaced symbol correctly,
the transmitted data can be decoded as if no distortion has
occurred. Conversely, if the displaced symbol is interpreted
incorrectly, a data error will occur. With a distance of 28.6%
between states, for the symbol to be correctly interpreted, it
must fall within ± 14.3% of the ideal position; otherwise the
receiver will decode the symbol as the next adjacent state.
Obviously it is desirable to keep the error vector to a mini-
mum for accurate transmission of data.

The Hewlett Packard vector signal analyzer (VSA) can dis-

play the EVM for each individual vector or the average and
peak vector errors.

The constellation diagram for a live 8-VSB signal is shown in figure Conclusion
6. This issue of TechNotes was written to familiarize the reader
with the concepts of error vector magnitude and digital sig-
nal to noise ratio. The calculation and theory of both of these
measurements, as well as any digital modulation scheme, are
very complex and beyond the scope of this paper.

Error vector magnitude and signal to noise ratio can be used

to quantify transmitter system performance, but care must be
taken when interpreting the results of these measurements.
Poor EVM or SNR performance is simply an indication of
a problem in the system. The degradation may be caused by
phase noise in the local oscillator, poor frequency response at
any stage of the system, poor return loss, RF interference or
virutally any other system related problem.
Digital Signal to Noise Ratio
It is important to remember that digital transmission systems
The signal to noise ratio specification is undoubetly familiar
just like NTSC systems, must be kept operating at peak
to every broadcast engineer, but it has a different mean-
performance to achieve optimal coverage.
ing for digital modulation. Digital SNR is not simply the
radio of signal power to nosie power and cannot be directly
compared to analog SNR. Digital SNR is the ratio of average
symbol power of the signal to the average power expressed in
decibels. The error power consists of anything that causes a
displacement of the symbol from the intended level of state
(ie phase noise, group delay, response error, non-linearities,
etc.). Currently the ATSC recommends that the transmitter