Apparatus for transmitting digital data in analog form.

The present invention relates to an apparatus for transmitting digital data in analog form high speed communications systems for digital data; and, more particularly, provides a data communications systems relying on analog signals for transmission of digital data.

Description of Related Art

High speed communications are required for a growing number of applications. The amount of data that can be transmitted per unit time has been limited by the switching speed of components in the transmitters and receivers. Further, for data integrity it has been the practice to use digital communication signals that include one bit of information per cycle.

It is known that a multi-level signal, such as the quasi-analog pulse amplitude modulation scheme (PAM) shown in Fig. 1a, contains more information per pulse than a pure digital signal. More information per pulse means more information per cycle in the transmitted signal and a higher effective data rate at a given frequency. Alternative quasi-analog systems shown in Figs. 1b and 1c, respectively, are pulse width modulation and pulse position modulation. These quasi-­analog communication signal formats have been used for the purposes of sampling analog data, such as voice in a telephone system, and converting it to a format for communication.

For long distance communications, these three quasi-analog communication signals have been converted to a purely digital format, such as pulse code modulation, to overcome noise interference problems and the like. Once in a purely digital format, the data can be combined with other kinds of digital data for high speed - long distance communication.

The limitation in switching speed of integrated circuit components begins to limit the speed of transmission of data in a digital format in current high volume data transmission systems. Such rapid communication applications are growing and include, in addition to telecommunications, video teleconferencing, digital video image transmission, and the like. Thus, it is desirable to increase the effective data rate of a transmission system having a given switching speed limitation.

We will describe an arrangement which provides a true analog signal, in combination with reference pulses, for high speed communication of digital information. Thus for example a transmitter receives digital information in parallel multi-bit words at a switching speed, and converts the multi-bit words to pulses with corresponding analog levels at that same switching speed. The analog levels are transmitted as an analog signal across a communication link. A receiver connected to the link recovers the digital information from the analog signal. Because each pulse of the analog signal encodes a plurality of bits of data in parallel, communication at a higher effective bit rate is achieved at a given switching speed.

According to one aspect of the present invention, an apparatus is provided for communication of digital data. The apparatus comprises a transmitter receiving digital data in parallel multi-bit words. The parallel multi-bit words are converted in conversion clock cycles to corresponding analog levels relative to a DC level. In each conversion clock cycle, the analog level does not return to zero unless a following multi-­bit word encodes the zero level. The transmitter also includes a reference pulse generator which combines a periodic reference pulse with the analog levels generated by the converter to form an analog output for transmission to the receiver.

The receiver includes a detector receiving the analog output. In response to the reference pulse, the receiver generates a recovery clock. A flash analog-­to-digital converter asynchronously converts the analog levels in the analog output to multi-bit digital outputs. The parallel multi-bit words are regenerated in recovery clock cycles by sampling the multi-bit digital output once per cycle.

Further aspects and advantages of the present invention will be determined upon review of the figures, the detailed description and the claims which follow.

Brief Description of the Figures

<ul id="ul0001" list-style="none"><li>Fig. 1a-1c are figures illustrating prior art quasi-analog communication signal formats, including pulse amplitude modulation, pulse width modulation, and pulse position modulation from Friend, et al., <u style="single">Understanding Data Communications</u>, Howard W. Sams and Company (1984) p. 83.</li><li>Fig. 2 is an illustration of the analog communication signal format according to the present invention.</li><li>Fig. 3 is a block diagram of a communication system according to the present invention.</li><li>Fig. 4 is a block diagram of a first embodiment of a transmitter according to the present invention.</li><li>Fig. 5 is a block diagram of a receiver according to the present invention.</li><li>Fig. 6 is a block diagram of an alternative embodiment of a transmitter according to the present invention.</li><li>Fig. 7 is a block diagram of yet a third alternative of a transmitter according to the present invention.</li><li>Fig. 8 is a block diagram of a high effective data rate digital to analog to digital transmission system according to the present invention.</li></ul>

Detailed Description

A detailed description of preferred embodiments of the present inventon is provided with reference to the figures.

With reference to Figs. 2 and 3, an overview of a digital-to-analog-to-digital transmission system is provided. With reference to Figs. 4 and 5, a representative transmitter and receiver system is described. With reference to Figs. 6 and 7, alternative transmitter embodiments are set out. Fig. 8 illustrates a high data rate transmission system according to the present invention.

Fig. 2 shows an example of an analog signal suitable for transmission of digital information according to the present invention. The analog signal consists of reference signals 10, 11 generated in response to a conversion clock signal 12. The reference signals 10, 11 are generated in cycles 0 and 16 of the conversion clock 12. In each intervening cycle, an analog level representing a value of a parallel digital input word is transmitted. For example, in cycle 1, a level corresponding to the first word, e.g., level 0 is transmitted. In cycle 2, level 1 for the second word is transmitted, in cycle 3, level 5 for the third word is transmitted, and so on where cycle 9, level 14 for the ninth word is transmitted, cycle 16, level 0 for the sixteenth word is transmitted. Note that the level of the analog signal does not return to 0 in each cycle of the conversion clock 12. Note also that there are 16 possible levels for the analog signal corresponding to a 4-bit, parallel input digital word.

Figure 3 provides a block diagram of the d-gital-­to-analog-to-digital transmission system according to the present invention. The system includes a transmitter 20 and a receiver 21. The transmitter receives parallel digital input 22 made up of a plurality of streams of digital data, converts the parallel digital input 22 to an analog signal for transmission across link 23. The analog signal is received by the receiver 21 and converted to parallel digital output 24. The parallel digital output is a regeneration of the sequence of digital words received at the parallel digital input 22.

Figure 4 is a block diagram of a transmitter according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention. Inputs to the transmitter include parallel multi-bit words on data line 40, an input clock on lane 41 and a conversion clock on line 42. A FIFO 43 receives the data 40 in response to the input clock 41. Digital words are output by the FIFO on line 44 in response to the conversion clock 42. A reference pulse tip intensity constant is stored in register 45. This constant is supplied on lines 46. A digital adder 47 receives the reference tip intensity constant on line 46 and the digital input word on line 44 and generates the sum for supply on line 48. The signals on lines 48 are digital multi-bit words representing the incoming data and the reference pulse.

The digital data on line 48 is supplied as a first input to multiplexer 49. The second input to multiplexer 49 is a reference value, in this case ground, on line 50.

The output of the multiplexer 49 is supplied on line 51. The signal on line 51 is the digital data on line 48 combined with a reference value from line 50 as determined by the reference signal on line 52. The reference signal is generated by a multi-bit counter 53 which counts the conversion clock cycles. For a reference signal generation every 16 cycles, the counter would be a 4-bit counter using the carry output as the reference pulse. The output of the multiplexer 51 is stored in register 54 in response to the inverse of the conversion clock on line 55. The inverse is generated by inverter 56 which is connected to receive the conversion clock on line 42. The output of register 54 is supplied to a digital-to-analog converter 57. The output of the digital-to-analog converter is the analog signal in the form as illustrated in Fig. 2 on line 58. This signal is suitable for transmission to a receiver across a communication link, such as a fiber-optic line.

Fig. 5 illustrates a receiver for a fiber-optic transmission system according to the present invention. The receiver receives the analog signal on line 70. The analog signal is supplied to photodetector 71 which generates an analog electrical signal on line 72 in response to the input signal on line 70. This signal is supplied through amplifier 73 across line 74 to a DC restoring circuit 75, which is responsive to the reference pulse for establishing a reconstituted version of the analog output signal on line 76 in a form as shown in Fig. 2. This signal on line 76 is supplied to a gated automatic gain control circuit 77, which normalizes the analog levels with reference to the reference pulse, and to a reference pulse stripping circuit 78. The reference stripping circuit 78 supplies the reference pulse across line 90 to a phase-­ locked loop oscillator 79 which generates a recovery clock on line 80. In addition, PLL 79 generates a sync gate signal on line 81.

The sync gate signal on line 81 is supplied as a gate control input to the gated automatic gain control circuit 77. The output of the automatic gain control circuit on line 82 is supplied to a flash analog-to-­digital converter 83. This supplies a digital output on line 84 which is sampled by register 85 in response to the recovery clock on line 80. The output on line 86 of register 85 is the regenerated sequence of multi-­bit digital words.

Fig. 6 describes an alternative embodiment of a transmitter according to the present invention using a digital adder with an analog multiplexer. In this system, the parallel data is received on line 100 by a FIFO 101 in response to input clock 102. The FIFO 101 supplies the sequence of digital multi-bit words on line 103 in response to conversion clock 104. The conversion clock is supplied to counter 105 which generates a reference signal on line 106 used to control analog multiplexer 107. The output of the FIFO 101 on line 103 is supplied to digital adder 108 where it is combined with the constant supplied by the reference tip intensity register 109 across line 110. The output of the adder on line 111 is sampled by register 112 in response to the inverse of the conversion clock on line 113. The inverse of the conversion clock on line 113 is generated by inverter 114 which is connected to receive the conversion clock on line 104. The output of register 112 supplied on line 115 to digital-to-analog converter 116. The analog output on line 117 of the digital-to-analog converter 116 is supplied as a first input to analog multiplexer 107. The second input to the analog multiplexer 107 is a reference value, in this case ground, on line 118. The output of the multiplexer is an analog signal as illustrated in Fig. 2 on line 119.

Fig. 7 is yet another alternative of a transmitter according to the present invention using a digital mask and an analog adder. In the embodiment of Fig. 7, the sequence of digital multi-bit words is supplied on line 150 to FIFO 151 in response to input clock 152. The output of the FIFO is supplied on lines 153 in response to conversion clock on line 154.

The conversion clock is supplied to a reference counter 155 which generates a reference signal on line 156. Likewise, the conversion clock is supplied through inverter 157 as a clock input on line 158 to register 159. The reference signal on line 156 is supplied through inverter 160 to line 161 as an input to register 159. Likewise, digital mask gates 162 consisting of a sequence of AND-gates each receive the signal on line 161 as a mask input. The second input to each of the mask gates 162 is one bit of a multi-bit word in the sequence supplied on lines 153. Register 159 latches the output of the mask gates 162 and the signal on line 161. The lowermost bit in register 159 is supplied on line 163 as input to the reference current source 164. The remaining bits in register 159 are supplied as digital inputs to digital-to-analog converter 165. The output of the reference current source and the digital-to-analog converter are combined on line 166 to form the analog output in a form as shown in Fig. 2. A load resistor 167 is coupled from line 166 to ground.

When the reference signal on line 156 is inactive, the value of the reference current source is added with the digital-to-analog converter output current to form the analog signal. When the reference signal on line 156 is active, the digital data supplied as inputs to the digital-to-analog converter 165 are zeros and the reference current source 164 is disabled, resulting in a reference pulse as shown in Fig. 2.

Fig. 8 is a schematic diagram of a communication system capable of transmitting one gigabit per second according to the present invention. In this system, four 8-bit parallel streams on lines 200 are supplied to data serializer 201 which generates eight 125 Megabits/sec. serial streams on line 202 for a total rate of 125 Megabytes/sec. These serial streams are supplied to digital-to-analog transmitter 203 for generation of an analog signal for communication across fiber-optic or coaxial link 204 at an effective bit rate of 1 gigabit per second. On the receiving end of the communication link 204, is an analog-to-digital receiver 205 which regenerates the eight serial streams on lines 206. The data deserializer 207 takes each of the eight serial streams from lines 206 and regenerates four 8-bit parallel streams on lines 208.

The system includes means for transmitting in both directions. Accordingly, four 8-bit parallel streams on lines 209 are supplied to data serializer 210 which generates eight serial streams on lines 211, at a total of 125 Megabytes per second. A digital-to-­analog transmitter 212 generates an analog signal for transmission at 1 gigabit/sec. across communication link 204. Analog-to-digital receiver 213 receives the signal and reconstitutes the eight serial streams on line 214. The eight serial streams are supplied to data deserializer 215 which reconstitutes the four 8-­bit parallel streams on lines 216.

Accordingly, the system of Fig. 8 provides a communication system which allows up to 1 gigabit per second over coaxial cables or fiber-optic communication lines using integrated circuit analog to digital converters operating at 125 MegaHertz. The digital data rate is thus eight times faster than that available using standard digital switching elements at 125 MegaHertz. The bottleneck represented by digital line drivers and receivers is therefore solved using parallel digital-to-analog and analog-to-parallel digital converters. Even higher effective data rates, for the given switching speed can be achieved with digital words larger than 8 bits as input, subject to any limitation caused by noise levels in the signal.

In alternative systems, a phase modulation technique could be used in combination with the amplitude modulation set out in Fig. 2 to obtain better noise immunity and the like in modems.

The foregoing description of preferred embodiments of the present invention has been provided for the purposes of illustration and description. It is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise forms disclosed. Obviously, many modifications and variations will be apparent to is practitioners skilled in this art. The embodiments were chosen and described in order to best explain the principles of the invention and its practical application, thereby enabling others skilled in the art to understand the invention for various embodiments and with various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated. It is intended that the scope of the invention be defined by the following claims and their equivalents.