Abstract: Copper cable has been used as a physical medium from the earliest analog telephony network to today’s digital communication networks. The physical nature of the copper metal shows growing insertion loss and increasing coupling between the conductors towards higher frequency. Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) is a multi-carrier modulation scheme, which was invented to cope the frequency selectivity in communication channels. The xDSL network, which delivers high speed data service over the existing telephony networks, adopted OFDM as the modulation scheme from the beginning. The other major copper cable-based access network, the Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification (DOCSIS), has also adopted OFDM, where the extended frequency band causes degraded channel condition. Following the massive commercial deployment of 10G BASE-T and the development of 40G BASE-T, twisted pair based copper cable Ethernet is looking towards the next standard of probably 100Gbps. Intuitively, the straight forward approach for higher data rates is to upgrade the heritage of previous standards. However, this legacy may not be the best way to extend the throughput, reach or both. In this talk, the three copper-based communication systems are introduced, and the OFDM modulation is discussed as a candidate transmission technology for future xBASE-T Ethernet evolution.
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