Introduction

The most commonly found single-frequency components of phase jitter on transmitted data signals are those of ringing current, commercial a.c. power and the second to fifth harmonics of these. Since the peak phase deviation caused by such components rarely exceeds 25° peak-to-peak (i.e. low index phase modulation) only one pair of significant sidebands is produced for each sinusoidal component. Hence the main phase jitter modulation usually exists within ± 300 Hz of a voice-frequency tone acting as a carrier.

Since random noise can cause what would appear to be a significant amount of phase jitter, a message weighted noise measurement should always be made in conjunction with phase jitter measurements. Also, because quantizing noise can cause a significant phase jitter reading, care must be exercised in the choice of the carrier frequency and in the filtering to suppress the effect of noise on the measurement.

Whilst this Recommendation is concerned with measurements in the frequency bands 4-300 Hz, 4-20 Hz and 20-300 Hz, it is also applicable for measuring in the frequency band 3-300 Hz and 3-20 Hz.

The following specifications for phase jitter measuring equipment are proposed.