Why You Need to Measure Both BER and MER on QAM

Digital Signals

Presented by:
Sunrise Telecom Broadband …a step
ahead

Page 1 2-14-2002
 Introduction

 Most Digital Analyzers measure Modulation Error Ratio

(MER) and Bit Error Rate (BER)
 MER and BER each have their limitations
 This seminar explains why it is important to measure both
MER and BER and what types of impairments that will be
missed if you only measure one or the other.
 Viewing of the Constellations Demystified Seminar and
the Modulation Error Ratio Demystified Seminar is
recommended prior to viewing this seminar.

Page 2 2-14-2002
 Modulation Error Ratio

 MER is defined as follows: RMS error magnitude

10 log
 MER is expressed in dB. average symbol
magnitude
RMS Error
Magnitude

Ideal
Symbol

Average
Symbol
Magnitude

Page 3 2-14-2002
 MER

 MER effectively assigns a value to the fuzziness of the

symbol cluster.
 The larger or fuzzier the cluster, the poorer the MER.
 The further from the ideal locations, the poorer the MER.

Constellation With Constellation With

“Good” MER “Poor” MER
Page 4 2-14-2002
 How Errors Occur

 Each symbol on the constellation is framed by decision

5 boundaries
 When the carrier falls inside the decision boundaries the information is
3
transmitted error free.
1

-7 -5 -3 -1 1 3 5 7
-1

-3

Correct Locations Fall -5

Within Decision
-7
Boundaries

Locations in Error Fall Outside

Decision Boundaries
Page 5 2-14-2002
 Comparison Between Three Error Free
Constellations

 All constellations below have a perfect BER with no errors, because the carrier always
falls within the decision boundaries.
7 7 7
 The constellations to the right have significantly better MER with less noise.
 When the cluster falls within the decision boundaries, BER is not an effective
5 5 5
measurement of quality because the BER is perfect.
3 3 3

1 1 1

-7 -5 -3 -1 1 3 5 7 -7 -5 -3 -1 1 3 5 -77 -5 -3 -1 1 3 5 7
-1 -1 -1

-3 -3 -3

-5 -5 -5

-7 -7 -7

Poor MER Good MER Best MER

Perfect BER Perfect BER Perfect BER
Page 6 2-14-2002
 MER vs BER With Only Gaussian Noise
Impairing the 64 QAM Signal

Note there are no errors in

this range of MER.
1.00E-09
No Errors
1.00E-08

BER 1.00E-07

1.00E-06

1.00E-05

1.00E-04

1.00E-03
35 34 33 32 31 30 29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21
1.00E-02

MER
In practice errors will tend to occur at higher MERs due to
Page 7 other forms of impairments besides Gaussian Noise. 2-14-2002
 Why Measure BER?

 Since MER can quantify signal quality when no errors

exist the question can be raised, why measure BER at all if
MER will do?
 The major limitation of MER is the inability of the
measurement to capture fast intermittent transients.
 A signal can have a very good MER, but poor BER due to
intermittent interference.

Page 8 2-14-2002
 Examples of Intermittent Interference That
Cause Poor BER But Good MER

 Laser Clipping
- Occasional overload of the laser due to analog sync pulses lining
up.
 Loose Connections
- Corroded or loose connections.
 Sweep System Interference
- Sweep pulses from a sweep system set up to sweep empty
spectrum.
 Microphonics
- Vibration of digital origination equipment can cause intermittent
errors.

Page 9 2-14-2002
 Troubleshooting By Measuring Both MER and
BER

 One way to determine if you have

intermittent problems is to measure both
MER and BER.
 If the MER is high, but you still see errors,
then the errors are probably caused by a
intermittent problem.

Page 10 2-14-2002
 Intermittent Errors on a Constellation Display

 Intermittent errors will show

up on a constellation display
as lone dots away from the
main cluster.

Zoomed Constellation
with Intermittent
Interference

Page 11 2-14-2002
 Conclusions

 In order to see the effects of all

types of impairments on a QAM
signal you need to measure both CM1000 Cable
MER and BER. Modem System
 MER can quantify the quality of Analyzer
a digital signal that doesn’t have
any errors.
 MER has the limitation of not
being able to see intermittent
errors so a signal can have a
good MER but a poor bit error AT2000
rate. Spectrum
 The most common type of Analyzer
intermittent errors are caused by
Page 12
laser clipping. 2-14-2002