Invited Talk
9:45 - 10:30 Invited Talk
Design trends in wireline communication systems
Jörg Hauptmann, Gaggl Richard, Clara Martin
Lantiq A GmbH, Siemensstrasse 4, 9500 Villach, Austria
Abstract
Modern communication systems have significantly increased their channel
bandwidth, as the transmitted data format has been changed from analog to
digital. Highly sophisticated algorithms in modern modulation schemes help
to enable high-quality and high-data-rate communication systems at a very
low cost. This is possible because the availability of deep sub-micron
technologies enables very-high-speed digital signal processing accompanied
by huge integrated data memories.
However, in digital communication systems, the transmission media (cable
or air) are still analog. Thus building modern communication systems not
only demands sophisticated algorithms running on high-speed DSPs, but also
analog front-end (AFE) circuitry and power amplifiers. They play key roles
in the interface to the transmission channel in the practical
implementation of any communication system.
Both in wireline (DSL, HN) and wireless communications (WLAN, LTE), there
is the same trend to use QAM modulation with discrete multi-tones (DMT)
for the line coding, and the bandwidth is extended towards 100-200 MHz.
The overall systems are very complex and have to be optimized in terms of
costs and performance. While the performance has to fulfill a certain
standard with some added margin, the cost position and innovations are
usually the key differentiation factors in the market. Addressing the cost
issue means having very highly integrated System-on-Chip (SoC) solutions,
and system boards with a very small form factor. In order to achieve the
ultimate target of lowest costs and power consumption, the system has to
be optimized for every building block involved. This talk will describe on
a few design examples the most important analog system parameters that
have to be optimized and balanced. Optimization has to be accompanied by
innovation in order to significantly reduce costs while keeping the
performance high.