ZHCSAB9E September 2012 – June 2019 DP83848-EP
PRODUCTION DATA.
When transmitting data at high speeds over copper twisted-pair cable, frequency dependent attenuation becomes a concern. In high-speed twisted-pair signalling, the frequency content of the transmitted signal can vary greatly during normal operation based primarily on the randomness of the scrambled data stream. This variation in signal attenuation caused by frequency variations must be compensated to ensure the integrity of the transmission.
To ensure quality transmission when employing MLT-3 encoding, the compensation must be able to adapt to various cable lengths and cable types depending on the installed environment. The selection of long cable lengths for a given implementation, requires significant compensation which will over-compensate for shorter, less attenuating lengths. Conversely, the selection of short or intermediate cable lengths requiring less compensation will cause serious under-compensation for longer length cables. The compensation or equalization must be adaptive to ensure proper conditioning of the received signal independent of the cable length.
The DP83848-EP uses an extremely robust equalization scheme referred as ‘Digital Adaptive Equalization.’
The Digital Equalizer removes ISI (inter symbol interference) from the receive data stream by continuously adapting to provide a filter with the inverse frequency response of the channel. Equalization is combined with an adaptive gain control stage. This enables the receive 'eye pattern' to be opened sufficiently to allow very reliable data recovery.
The curves given in Figure 5-8 illustrate attenuation at certain frequencies for given cable lengths. This is derived from the worst case frequency vs attenuation figures as specified in the EIA/TIA Bulletin TSB-36. These curves indicate the significant variations in signal attenuation that must be compensated for by the receive adaptive equalization circuit.