Enhancement Of The Sensitivity Of A Digital Receiver By Time Synchronous Averaging

This paper describes a method to increase the sensitivity of a digital radio receiver based on the time synchronous averaging (TSA). The data to be send are grouped into a block and the block is retransmitted multiple times. Received blocks are synchronously averaged thus increasing the signal-to-noise ratio. The TSA can be performed on the analog signal at the demodulator output (soft TSA) or on the digital data after the receiver's detector (hard decision TSA). The performances of both approaches are evaluated and compared. Experimental measurements based on the hard decision TS are provided as well. It is shown that the hard decision TSA can improve the sensitivity of a standard receiver by 3 to 5 dB thus extending the communication range. The TSA is suitable for implementation in transceivers dedicated for long range and low data rate IoT communications.