SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ENHANCING THE PERFORMANCE OF WIDEBAND DIGITAL RF TRANSPORT SYSTEMS

• US 20100046641A1
• Filed: 10/27/2009
• Published: 02/25/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 04/06/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Outdoor Wireless Networks LLC (CommScope Holding Company, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: ADC Telecommunications Incorporated (TE Connectivity Limited)
• Inventors: Wala, Philip M.
• Granted Patent: US 7,848,747 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 375/241
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 3/1629 Format building algorithm
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 3/1647 Subrate or multislot multiplexing

Abstract

A system and method for enhancing the performance of wideband digital RF transport systems is disclosed, which enables the transport of different bandwidth segments on a plurality of wideband channels by selecting an optimal clock sample rate for each bandwidth segment to be transported. Thus, the bandwidth segments are proportionally allocated so that an optimum amount of bandwidth can be transported at the serial bit rate. As one example, a system for enhancing the performance of a wideband digital RF transport system is disclosed, which includes a transmit unit, a receive unit, and an optical transmission medium connected between the transmit unit and the receive unit. The transmit unit includes a plurality of wideband RF analog signal inputs coupled to a plurality of analog-to-digital, digital down-converter (A/D DDC) devices. Notably, the sample rate of each A/D DDC device is determined by a respective sample clock. The digitized wideband RF segments at the outputs of the A/D DDC devices are combined and converted to a frame structure, converted to serial form, and transmitted on the optical transmission medium to the receive unit. A light detector device in the receive unit detects the serial bit stream on the optical transmission medium, the serialized frames are converted back to the original frame format, and the original digitized wideband RF segments are reconstructed. Each digitized wideband RF segment is coupled to a respective D/A digital up-converter (D/A DUC) device associated with a particular wideband RF signal input on the transmit side. Notably, the output sample rate of each D/A DUC device is determined by a respective sample clock, which provides the same sample rate as that of the associated A/D DDC device in the transmit unit. The sample rate of each A/D DDC device (and associated D/A DUC device) is pre-selected so that the transmission medium can transport the optimum amount of RF bandwidth at the given serial bit rate.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving a plurality of analog signals each having an associated bandwidth;

sampling each of the plurality of analog signals with a selected sample rate, the selected sample rates selected based on the bandwidth of the associated one of the plurality of analog signals;

combining the samples of the plurality of analog signals; and

converting the combined samples to a serial data stream.