STANDARD:

STANAG 4529

Overview

STANAG 4529 describes the characteristics of Serial Tone Mode (STM) providing data rates ranging from 75 to 1200 bps coded, and 600 to 1800 bps uncoded, in a 1240 Hz channel.

Status

The original STANAG 4529 (Edition 1) – “Characteristics of Single Tone Modulators/Demodulators for Maritime HF Radio Links in 1240 Hz Bandwidth” was released in February 1995.

Key Features

Non-autobaud capable waveformsproviding data rates ranging from 75 to 1200 bps coded, and 600 to 1800 bps uncoded, in a 1240 Hz channel. The STM waveforms are recommended for backwards interoperability with NATO Broadcast and ship-to-shore (BRASS) systems used by navies.
The STANAG 4529 waveform does not have embedded autobaud fields. Thus, the transmitter and receiver need to be set up to the desired data rate and interleaver at both ends of the link. The setting used in one direction of the link does not need be the same as in the reverse direction.
A narrower occupied bandwidth, compared to STANAG 4285, is achieved by using a symbol rate of 1200 symbols per second.

Relevance

The STANAG 4529 waveform is suitable for shore-to-ship use in 1240 Hz channels.
The single tone PSK waveforms are important for backwards interoperability with NATO BRASS systems used by Navies.

Single Tone Mode (STM)

The table below summarises the complete STANAG 4529 waveform suite. Included in the table are the modulation, code rate and interleaver settings for each data rate.

Waveform	Data Rate (bps)	Modulation Constellation	Coding Rate	Interleaver Settings	Tone Excision Capability
S 4529	75 C	BPSK	1/8	S, L	YES
	150 C	BPSK	1/4		YES
	300 C	BPSK	1/2		YES
	600 C	QPSK	1/2		YES
	1200 C	8-PSK	2/3		YES
	600 U	BPSK	None	None	YES
	1200 U	QPSK	None	None	YES
	1800 U	8-PSK	None	None	YES

Table 1: STANAG 4529 – STM Waveform Suite

The following table gives performance results for RM Modems (measured using HF Channel Simulator).

The STANAG 4529 standard does not specify any performance requirements. The requirements and measurement conditions given below are based on MS 110A. Please note that the SNR is measured in 3 kHz to alleviate comparisons.

STANAG 4529
STANAG 4203 Filters excluded, Test based on MIL-STD-188-110A requirements SNR units: [dB] in 3 kHz
Data Rate [bps]	IB	HF Channel Conditions			Design Objective		Modem SNR Measured [dB]
Data Rate [bps]	IB	Doppler Spread [Hz]	Amplitude Path 2 [dB]	Multi-Path Spread [ms]	BER	SNR [dB]	Modem SNR Measured [dB]
1800	–	0	Off	–	<10^-3	17	12.0
1800	–	0.5	0	2	<10^-3	27	25.8
1200	L	0	Off	–	<10^-5	10	7.8
1200	L	1	0	2	<10^-5	18	14.6
1200	L	5	0	2	<10^-3	30	21.9
1200	L	1	0	5	<10^-5	30	13.1
600	L	1	0	2	<10^-5	11	6.5
300	L	1	0	2	<10^-5	7	1.8
150	L	5	0	5	<10^-5	7	-1.5
75	L	5	0	5	<10^-5	5	-5.1

Table 2: Performance: STANAG 4529 (STANAG 4203 filters excluded)