PACTOR Packet Teleprinting Over Radio

Advanced Protocols

Pactor Series Overview

Pactor is a radio transmission mode used by ama- internet access for users. Pactor utilizes a combi-
teur radio operators, marine radio stations and ra- nation of simple FSK modulation and the ARQ pro-
dio stations in isolated areas (e.g., high seas and tocol for robust error detection and data through-
expedition routes) to send and receive digital in- put.
formation via radio. A robust network of Pactor Generational improvements to Pactor include
stations has been established to relay data be- Pactor-II, Pactor-III and Pactor-4 which are capable
tween radio stations and the internet, extending of higher speed transmission.

Description of Pactor Modes

Pactor-I
Pactor-I was developed in the 80s by the German properly. The ARQ cycle time in Pactor-I is always
radio amateurs Hans-Peter Helfert and Ulrich 1.25 seconds. To verify the data integrity, all data
Strate. It was derived from AMTOR. packets carry a 16-bit CRC checksum.
Pactor-I uses AFSK (Audio Frequency Shift Keying) In order to increase the data throughput, Pactor
modulation with a tone spacing of 200 Hz and the supports a built-in Huffman compression, which is
data rates of 100 and 200 baud. It uses an ARQ able to compress the text. If there are a lot of re-
protocol, which means the data is sent in packets peating sequences in the data, an additional com-
and has to be acknowledged by the receiving sta- pression scheme — the run-length encoding — is
tion. The receiving station can request a re- applied to increase the throughput further.
transmission of a packet when it is not received

Baudrate Data bytes / packet

100 8
200 20

Table 1 Pactor-I transmission rate

PACTOR Packet Teleprinting Over Radio
Advanced Protocols

Pactor-II

After the success of Pactor-I, the SCS company was ward error correction (FEC). The maximum
founded in 1992 and the proprietary Pactor-II throughput is 700 bps (bits per second). As Pactor-
modes was developed. I, the whole signal fits into a 500 Hz wide channel.
This mode uses 2 PSK (Phase Shift Keying)- The transmission rates are adjusted based on the
modulated carriers with a carrier spacing of 200 Hz channel quality.
and a symbol rate of 100 baud.
Other than its predecessor, Pactor-II applies a for-

Modulation Code rate Byte/packet Byte/packet Net rate User rate

(1.25s cycle) (3.75s cycle)
DBPSK 1/2 5 36 200 100
DQPSK 1/2 14 76 400 200
8-DPSK 2/3 32 156 600 400
16-DPSK 7/8 59 276 800 700

Table 2 Pactor-II transmission rate

Pactor-III

The development of Pactor-III was a huge leap for- channel.

ward. It achieved a user data rates up to 3200 bits There are 6 speed levels and two packet cycle
per second. lengths. The number of carriers used and the
Pactor-III uses multi-channel PSK and pulsed- transmission rate depend on the speed level,
shaped OFDM for transmission. Up to 18 channels which is again adaptive according to the channel
can be used. The symbol rate is still 100 baud. quality.
However, the bandwidth is increased to 2.4 kHz,
which corresponds to the width of an HF voice

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Advanced Protocols

Pactor-III

Carrier number
Speed level
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
1 X X
2 X X X X X X
3 X X X X X X X X X X X X X X
4 X X X X X X X X X X X X X X
5 X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X
6 X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X

Table 3 Pactor-III multi-channel scheme. “X” means the carrier is used in this speed level. The
carrier frequency is 480 + 120 * (carrier number) Hz.

Level Mod Carriers Code Code Data rate User rate Bytes/packet Bytes/packet
length rate (bps) (bps) Short Long
1 DBPSK 2 9 1/2 200 100 5 36
2 DBPSK 6 7 1/2 600 300 23 116
3 DBPSK 14 7 1/2 1400 700 59 276
4 DQPSK 14 7 1/2 2800 1400 122 556
5 DQPSK 16 7 3/4 3200 2400 212 956
6 DQPSK 18 7 8/9 3600 3200 284 1276

Table 4 Pactor-III transmission rate.

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Advanced Protocols

Pactor-4
The newest generation Pactor-4 was first intro- Modulation schemes change depending on the
duced in 2011, together with a new modem by the speed level. Robust levels use the spread spectrum
company SCS. modulation, where other normal levels use coher-
Pactor-4 implements 10 speed levels. Level 1 uses ent PSK and QAM modulation schemes. At the re-
dual-channel chirp DBPSK. The other levels use a ceiver side an adaptive equalizer is running to com-
single carrier PSK signal at 1500 Hz, modulated at bat various unfavorable channel conditions in the
1800 baud. The single carrier PSK scheme is adopt- HF transmission.
ed from the famous MIL and STANAG mode series.

Level Cycle Baud Modula- Code Data rate Net rate User data User bytes /
rate tion rate (bps) (bps) rate (bps) packet
1 Long 66.667 DBPSK 1/2 133.33 66.667 47 22
2 Long 112.5 DQPSK * 1/2 225 112.5 85.3 40
3 Long 112.5 DQPSK * 5/6 225 187.5 147.2 69
4 Long 225 DQPSK * 5/6 450 375 300.8 141
5 Short 1800 BPSK 1/3 1800 600 256 40
7 Short 1800 QPSK 1/3 3600 1200 537.5 84
8 Short 1800 8-PSK 1/3 5400 1800 819 128
9 Short 1800 16-QAM 1/3 7200 2400 1101 172
5 Long 1800 BPSK 1/3 1800 600 433 203
6 Long 1800 BPSK 5/6 1800 1500 1096.5 514
7 Long 1800 QPSK 5/6 3600 3000 2199.5 1031
8 Long 1800 8-PSK 5/6 5400 4500 3304.5 1549
9 Long 1800 16-QAM 5/6 7200 6000 4407.5 2066
10 Long 1800 32-QAM 5/6 9000 7500 5512.5 2584

Table 5 Pactor-4 transmission rate. (* spread spectrum modulation)

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PACTOR Packet Teleprinting Over Radio
Advanced Protocols

Compression
In order to increase the data throughput, Pactor-I switched. PMC exploits the fact that for different
employs a packet-wise Huffman compression letters, the probabilities for the following letters
scheme. It uses a fixed Huffman tree. are different. There are several PMC modes, opti-
In Pactor-II an additional scheme, the Pseudo- mized for German and English texts and for capital
Markov Compression (PMC), was introduced. PMC and small letters.
works similar to Huffman compression, but after
each character, the Huffman table may be

Applications

SCS Mail and EasyTransfer

SCS Mail is a software written by the company SCS. It transfers emails via Pactor.
EasyTransfer is a software by SCS as well. It transmits and receives files via HF.

Pactor IP Bridge

Pactor modems also contain a so-called “Pactor IP Typically, when using PIB, one side acts as a host or
Bridge” (PIB). This supports TCP/IP connections via gateway, to which clients can connect. This is
HF. A computer connects to the modem via the called the host mode. There is also a protocol
PPP protocol, and the modem translates PPP pack- called “Free Signal Protocol” (FSP) that can be used
ets to a format suitable for the HF transmission. It alongside with the host mode. When using FSP, the
also applies TCP/IP header compression to reduce host regularly transmits its callsign when it is avail-
the overhead. This functionality can be used to able for connections. Clients can then connect by
send and receive emails and surf in the internet replying to a free signal packet.
using any software.

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PACTOR Packet Teleprinting Over Radio
Advanced Protocols

Networks

There are many networks using Pactor series as transmit and receive files. PIB is not support-
communication protocol. ed, but Pactor-4 is used by SailMail.
 Global Link Network (GLN) is a global HF net-  Amateur Radio: Pactor series are very popu-
work. It supports the Pactor IP bridge func- lar among amateurs all over the world. The
tionality, and is used mostly by ships. It sup- amateur communication can often be heard
ports up to Pactor-III and uses the free signal on the corresponding frequencies.
protocol. The connections of GLN are en-
crypted.
 SailMail is another HF network. It is used to

Wavecom Implementation

The whole Pactor series are implemented in the ognize and verify the CRC checksum and auto-
Wavecom decoders (HF-Modes). matically decompress and decode user data to its
All the Pactor decoders demodulate and decode final protocol layers.
the Pactor signals, make frequency tracking, rec-

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PACTOR Packet Teleprinting Over Radio
Advanced Protocols

Since thirty years Wavecom Elektronik AG has de- munication may be arbitrary, but commonly con-
veloped, manufactured and distributed high quality tains text, images and voice. The company is inter-
devices and software for the decoding and retrieval nationally established within this industry and
of information from wireless data communication maintains a longstanding, world-wide network of
in all frequency bands. The nature of the data com- distributors and business partners.

Product Information

Products http://www.wavecom.ch/product-summary.php
Datasheets http://www.wavecom.ch/brochures.php
Specifications http://www.wavecom.ch/product-specifications.php
Documentation http://www.wavecom.ch/manuals.php
Online help http://www.wavecom.ch/content/ext/DecoderOnlineHelp/default.htm
Software warranty One year free releases and bug fixes, update by DVD
Hardware warranty Two years hardware warranty
Prices http://www.wavecom.ch/contact-us.php

System Requirements

Minimum Recommended
CPU P4 Dual-Core 2.4 GHz Core i5 or Core i7 2.8 GHz
Memory 2 GB RAM 4 - 8 GB RAM
OS Windows XP Windows 7 32-bit or Windows 7 64-bit

Distributors and Regional Contacts

You will find a list of distributors and regional contacts at http://www.wavecom.ch/distributors.php

WAVECOM ELEKTRONIK AG, Hammerstrasse 8

8180 Buelach, Switzerland
Phone +41 44 872 70 60 Fax +41 44 872 70 66
E-Mail: sales@wavecom.ch
Internet: www.wavecom.ch

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