Multi-line Coordinated Communication: for Broadband Access Networks

The interest in designing high-speed communication systems over metallic wire conductors remains very strong. This interest is exemplified by efforts to deliver Very-high-speed Digital Subscriber Line (VDSL) systems, Ethernet-in-the-First-Mile (EFM), multi-Gbps Ethernet over copper twisted pairs of short length, and multi-Gbps chip-to-chip serial links over cable or backplane traces. A prevailing characteristic of such systems is that multiple lines emanate from a central node and reach remote terminals. Crosstalk among the lines is in several cases the dominant constraining factor for communication. This work examines how coordination among signals of different lines during transmission or reception facilitates reliable, high-speed communication. A fundamental result of this work is that such coordination in multi-line channels is capable of achieving performance that is very close to that attained in the absence of crosstalk.