This topic covers configuring the TDECQ operator when it is a secondary to a Reference Receiver operator.

The Advanced tab allows you to specify the pattern symbol sequence, the equalizer's bandwidth, and select aliased noise processing.

Specify Pattern Symbol Sequence

By default, the pattern symbol sequence is set to be automatically detected. However, you can change this to be either a standard Known Pattern (NRZ or PAM4), or a BERT Pattern File (*.ptrn). The following table lists the available known patterns. If you select to import a Pattern File, you can specify if the pattern uses Gray Coding. Gray coding, or reflected binary code, is a coding pattern where successive symbols differ by one binary bit. For example in the case of PAM4, binary bit sequences 00, 01,10, and 11 represent levels 0, 1, 2, and 3.

Equalizer Bandwidth

By default, the equalizer's bandwidth (tap spacing) is tracked. If you clear this setting, you can manually specify the bandwidth.

Aliased Noise Processing

None Selection

The option None does not make any special considerations for aliased noise. This is an appropriate choice when the waveform is known to have no aliased components, such as from a real-time or simulated source. This also is the preferred choice when dealing with averaged waveforms where the desired outcome is to remove noise and interference components that are not correlated to the trigger signal.

Process Spectrum Selection

The option Process Spectrum works by applying the transfer function of the filter to the power spectrum of the noise to determine the appropriate magnitude of the noise on the output signal.

The default behavior of the Process Spectrum noise processing option is to use the noise power spectrum of the input signal. If the input signal is a sampling scope channel with SIRC active, this spectrum will be established by the measured hardware response of the channel. For other channels, the response will be assumed Gaussian with a 3 dB frequency corresponding to the nominal channel bandwidth. This behavior can be overridden by clearing the Track Input Response checkbox and manually entering a bandwidth. If this option is utilized the response will be presumed Gaussian with the selected 3 dB bandwidth.

Preserve RMS Selection

The option Preserve RMS is appropriate when the noise bandwidth is very low relative to the channel and filter bandwidth. It is also appropriate when the aliased components are known to have most of the power within a range of in-band frequencies. This could be from laser RIN, for example, or from intentionally modulated interference/crosstalk. When Preserve RMS is selected, the RMS magnitude of the aliased components will be scaled by the DC gain (the sum of the taps) of the filter. For the low-pass filters (Bessel, Butterworth, Gaussian, Sinc), the DC gain is unity. For the equalizers and embedding/de-embedding operators, the DC gain depends upon the settings of the operator.

By tracking the accumulated effects of the filtering operations, accurate noise processing can be done even when chaining operations as illustrated in the following figure. In addition to the sampled waveform, information about the acquisition channel and noise power spectrum are maintained in each signal and appropriately processed by each filter. The complete set of auxiliary information is also included when storing FlexDCA waveforms in the *.wfmx file format.