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Next Generation Transmission Technology

White Paper

March 2000

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Abstract

The need for the transmission of high bandwidth services on ordinary twisted copper pairs has
been recognized for quite some time. These technologies help to protect the huge investments
that have been made in the copper infrastructure. The fact that alternative access technologies
like cable modem and radio transmission are gaining market share forces the ILECs and
CLECs (Incumbent/Competing Local Exchange Carriers) to react by offering similar services
in their networks.

In the meantime the whole alphabet of xDSL technologies has appeared. Some of these letters
have already vanished. This document shows that there is still a multitude of applications and
services not covered by existing technologies. The upcoming SHDSL technology currently
being standardized at ETSI and ITU will be discussed in terms of applications, technical
background and how it fits the different network architectures. Finally the integrated SHDSL
transceiver SOCRATESTM from Infineon Technologies will be introduced.

Introduction

For several years E1/T1 connections have been the only way to transport higher data rates
over ordinary twisted copper pairs. Such technologies have been used for central office
interconnection as well as for telecommunication access to business subscribers. To date
residential users have accessed the Internet using analog modems with up to 56 kbps and
ISDN links with up to 144 kbps. The different DSL technologies have been developed in
order to increase loop reach for existing services or to boost the data rate on existing copper
wires.

To serve different customer needs several DSL technologies are being deployed at present.
For residential access ADSL and ADSLlite have been introduced combining a high-speed
data channel with a POTS telephone line whereas for the replacement of E1/T1 lines
symmetrical DSL has been developed. This paper deals with SHDSL according to ETSI and
ITU representing the most recent standard for symmetric transmission.

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Roots of SHDSL

The mother of all digital transmission technologies is ISDN (Integrated Services Digital
Network) which was introduced about ten years ago. The 2B1Q line code of ISDN is still
used in today’s HDSL systems. A data only application named IDSL (ISDN DSL) provides
medium speed data access mainly for US residential subscribers. Infineon Technologies co-
invented ISDN and is today’s market leader in ISDN transceiver ICs.

The first symmetric DSL technology introduced was HDSL (High Bit Rate Digital Subscriber
Loop). It was originally thought of as a replacement for T1 lines. A T1 line is only capable of
bridging about 4,500 feet at 1544 kbps on two twisted pairs; one for the transmit path and
another one for the receive path. Therefore in order to serve the whole CSA (Carrier Serving
Area) range of 12,000 feet, two expensive repeaters are required. HDSL can transmit 784
kbps full duplex on each twisted pair, thus providing full T1 data rate on two pairs over a
distance of 12,000 feet. ETSI adopted this technology defining an E1 service over three
twisted pairs. Later, a data rate of 1168 kbps was introduced allowing transportation of E1
data rate over only two copper pairs but with the trade off of a lower loop reach. In the
meantime some suppliers have increased the data rates of their transceivers to 2.3 Mbps
enabling full E1 rate transmission on one copper pair. Whereas ETSI took this into the
standard ANSI refrained from doing so due to loop reach limitation far below the CSA.

With HDSL functioning without repeaters, the next logical step was to make better use of the
existing copper infrastructure. To achieve this ANSI decided to establish a new standard
called HDSL2. This standard is based on the more sophisticated TC-PAM line code. A
special PSD mask called OPTIS is used to best fit the ANSI noise model. HDSL2 has been
designed to provide a T1 service on just one twisted pair over the full CSA.

After the deployment of DSL in E1/T1 applications, DSL technologies also started to gain
importance in the PCMx market (also referred to as Universal Digital Loop Carriers or
Pairgain Systems) as well as in subscriber access applications. Since there is always a trade
off between loop reach and data rate, equipment manufacturers were demanding flexible bit
rates to achieve optimum transmission performance at all times. For this reason several
semiconductor suppliers have brought up Multi Bit Rate DSL (MDSL) transceiver ICs.
Infineon Technologies for example produced the MuBIC, a 1 Mbps MDSL one chip
transceiver with the industries lowest power consumption and the only chip based on the TC-

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PAM line code. However MDSL has never become an official standard and will remain a
subset of the upcoming SHDSL standards.

The next step in standardization has been called SHDSL (Symmetric High Bit Rate Digital
Subscriber Loop). This technology, as currently defined by ETSI and ITU combines the
flexible bit rate of MDSL with the TC-PAM line code and transmission performance of
HDSL2. At the same time the main disadvantages of HDSL2 are avoided. OPTIS shaping,
together with the high complexity of the coding algorithms result in a significant increase in
power consumption making it difficult to use HDSL2 in remote feed applications.

Both the ETSI and the ITU activities are expected to be finished by September 2000. Fig 1
shows the relationship between the different standards.

Fig 1: Overview over the different symmetric DSL Standards

Why deploy SHDSL in addition to current access technologies?

Initially symmetric DSL was meant to serve only as a low cost alternative to E1/T1
connections whereas ADSL was defined for residential Internet and telephone access. Recent
history has shown however that many new services have appeared, some of them requiring
high upstream data rates. Applications like Remote LAN Access (RLA), private web servers
and high quality video conferencing in conjunction with more than one voice channel are
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gaining more and more in importance. Data rate flexibility and allocation between voice and
data channels allow service providers to offer tailor-made access solutions to their subscribers
always using the same transmission technology.

It is generally accepted that three different high-speed DSL technologies will co-exist for
three different fields of application. IDSL still is an alternative for customers outside the reach
of high-speed services.

ADSL as well as ADSLlite will have its merits in residential subscriber access offering an
easy combination of fast internet access with one telephone line for life line service. The
limits of ADSL are reached when additional voice channels are required. Although an in band
transmission of voice channels is currently defined under the name VoDSL there are other
obstacles like delay and the asymmetric nature of ADSL.

The second technology, VDSL, can supply very high data rates on relatively short loops. This
is advantageous for applications like video on demand. Voice (POTS or ISDN) can be
transmitted in the base band as well as in the digital domain. When using the in band option
an ATM network is a precondition. VDSL can provide a full set of services for example to a
household consisting of. three independent video channels, a voice channel plus a high speed
Internet access thereby posing serious competition for cable networks. However it’s short
reach limits the deployment to areas with a high-density infrastructure like industrial areas
and “vertical” cities.

SHDSL in contrast may well become the access technology of choice for business customers.
It offers up to 36 voice channels and symmetric high bandwidth for data services. Symmetry
is required for applications like video conferencing, LAN interconnection or even e-mail. If a
customer wants to use 9 voice channels in parallel, a full rate ADSL access would completely
congest, whereas an SHDSL access can still offer 1.7 Mbps for other services. This is due to
fact that the 9 voice channels with AAL1, use ADSL’s full 640 kbps upstream rate. The
remaining 7 Mbps downstream rate cannot be used, because a download from the Internet
would take approximately 15% of the downstream rate from the upstream bandwidth. This is
necessary to terminate the protocol. SHDSL’s scalability of the bandwidth allows the
operators to offer every customer the exact combination of voice and data services required.

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Software upgrades are also possible. This way the communication service can grow with the
customers business without any new installation of hardware. Due to the symmetric PSD of
SHDSL loop reach can be even increased using repeaters without causing additional
disturbances.

Technical background

Although the standardization of SHDSL is not yet finished, the basic requirements have been
fixed. Data rates and framing formats as well as the mandatory physical parameters of the
transmission have been defined.

Key performance features are; an adjustable date rate from 192 kbps up to 2,360 kbps with a
granularity of 8 kbps, the possibility for synchronous (to a network reference clock) as well as
plesiochronous transmission, and a minimum loop reach of 8,000 feet at 2 Mbps or 15,000
feet at 384 kbps respectively.

It has been decided that SHDSL will be based on base band TC-PAM (Trellis Coded Pulse
Amplitude Modulation). The main factors behind the choice of PAM as the SHDSL line code
were the lower complexity of the algorithms and the low latency necessary for voice traffic.
Each symbol consists of three payload bits and an additional coding bit resulting in a 16-level
PAM code. This way redundancy is introduced into the bit stream resulting in a reduction of
the bit error probability. Trellis coding provides a coding gain of approximately 5dB. In the
receive path a Viterbi decoder is used to regain the original information. Since this approach
doesn’t allow the use of a decision feedback equalizer a Tomlinson precoder introduces a
channel dependent pre-distortion to the signal. The transmission is full duplex using echo
cancellation.

Both standardization bodies have agreed on a set of symmetric PSDs (Power Spectral
Densities) as shown in Fig 2. These PSDs are achieved by filtering a square wave at symbol
frequency with a 6th order Butterworth filter with its 3dB cutoff at half symbol frequency.
This PSD template is scalable thus enabling the bandwidth flexibility of SHDSL. The peak to
RMS value (Crest factor) of only 2.9 makes the line driver very power efficient. The transmit

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power is 13.5 dBm for all data rates. For 2.048 kbps and above ETSI has standardized an
increased transmit power of 14.5 dBm.

-40

-60

256 kbit/s
dBm/Hz

-80 384 kbit/s

-140
3 4 5 6
10 10 10 10
f/Hz

Fig 2: Mandatory set of PSDs

This set of PSDs (Fig.2) has been designed to fit three major requirements. Firstly, these
masks fit under the PSD masks for HDSL 3-pair, HDSL 2-pair or ISDN. This provides an
excellent spectral compatibility because at a comparable data rate the amplitude of the
appropriate HDSL mask is filled but not the bandwidth. Secondly these masks provide best
performance on all defined loops for the FSAN (Full Service Access Network) noise models.
This includes a scenario with 100% self-NEXT (Near End Cross Talk). In this way there is a
no limitations guarantee on the deployment of SHDSL in terms of number of lines in a
bundle. The third goal was to create a smooth PSD that allows low power consumption in the
line driver in order to address requirements like line card density and remote feeding.

If one is using SHDSL to replace HDSL 2-pair systems, it is desirable to achieve the same
loop reach of 8.000 kfeet at 2.048 kbps, as defined in TS 101 135. By using the symmetric
mask as described above this goal is missed by approximately 500–1000 feet depending on

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implementation. Therefore the standardization bodies have decided to allow asymmetric PSDs
as an option. However due to the higher bandwidth and the higher transmission power
required, this causes significantly greater power consumption and complexity of the DSP. In
its North American annex the ITU also allows the use of the OPTIS shaping of HDSL2 at T1
rate. In this way the appropriate ANSI standard is incorporated. Other optional templates for
certain data rates are still being debated.

Since SHDSL is a pure digital technology, the voice channels are inserted in the data stream.
This way the valuable base band of the transmission line is not wasted, as is the case with
ADSL for example, but is used to achieve higher loop lengths. On longer loops the lower
frequencies are much less attenuated than the higher frequencies. VoDSL is therefore an
integrated feature of SHDSL and can be provided via PCM (Pulse Code Modulation) as is the
case with ISDN or by means of ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) as currently defined in
the DSL-Forum.

The payload of an SHDSL frame consists of three to 36 B-channels with 64 kbps each and up
to 7 auxiliary channels also referred to as Z-channels with 8 kbps each. An 8 kbps overhead
channel is added to provide synchronization, as well as an EOC (Embedded Operation
Channel) and the stuffing bits required for plesiochronous operation. As a consequence the
line bit rate can be calculated to be 8+i*8+n*64 kbps with i being the number of 8 kbps Z-
channels and n being the number of 64 kbps B-channels. The channel architecture makes it
possible to transmit different services independently and in parallel e.g. a combination of
TDM (Time Division Multiplexing) voice channels with an ATM bit stream. Standardized
mappings of different services like ATM, ISDN and POTS into the SHDSL frame are
currently being defined by the standardization bodies. A detailed description of the SHDSL
frame is provided in Fig 3.

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48 * (1+i+n*8)
14 2 12 * (i+n*8) 10 12 * (i+n*8) 10 12 * (i+n*8) 10 12 * (i+n*8)  (bits)

P P P P P P P P P P S
Sync O O O O .... 1 O 1 ....... 2 O 2 ....... 3 O 3 ....... 4 p
word H 1 2 3 2 H 3 4 H 5 6 H 7 8 a
r
e

0 ms 6 ms
Payload Block
i n*8 (bits)
Z1 Z2 Z3 ... Zi B1 B2 B3 B4 .... Bn

i=0,1,2...7 n=3,4...36

Fig 3: SHDSL framing

ITU G.handshake has been chosen as the protocol for the initialization of the connection. This
enables a pre-activation negotiation of bit rates and protocols for example. G.handshake uses
a very simple transmission method called DPSK (Differential Phase Shift Keying) at a low
data rate. It doesn’t need an initial training. Moreover some sort of lifeline service has to be
defined in order to ensure the availability of at least one voice channel during a power cut. To
achieve this, low power consumption is crucial because the power for the subscriber module
has to be provided by remote feeding.

SHDSL in the Network

Although the symmetric DSL technologies were originally developed to be used mainly in
infrastructure, subscriber access is expected to become the biggest portion of the market. Due
to their demand for multiple voice channels, business customers are likely to adopt this
technology very soon. Subsequently residential customers are expected to follow that trend,
because of the possibility of having more than one voice channel combined with high speed
Internet access. Depending on the ratio between voice and data SHDSL can be deployed in a
switch as well as in a DSLAM.

In an ATM based network on the customer side, an IAD (Integrated Access Device) is
installed to convert voice and data into ATM cells. An IAD can also contain some routing
functionality. Data is converted using AAL5 (ATM Adaptation Layer); while voice requires
AAL1 (without compression) or AAL2 (with compression and micro cells). These cells are
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mapped together in the SHDSL frame and recovered later on in the DSLAM. An ATM switch
routes the cells either to an ISP (Internet Service Provider) or to a voice gateway that
translates the voice cells back into the TDM world. A complete ATM network architecture is
shown in Fig 4.

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Fig 4: ATM network architecture

In a TDM network the subscriber access can be done by means of a DLC (Digital Loop
Carrier) or Access Network. The voice part of the SHDSL frame will be treated in a similar
fashion to normal ISDN or POTS services. The data needs to be converted into ATM. This
can be done either in an IAD, resulting in a mix of TDM and ATM on the SHDSL line, or at
the central office side. In the second case it is necessary to protect the data on the line. This
can be easily done by an HDLC protocol. The division between voice and data should be done
in the loop carrier so that the ATM cells can be sent directly to the ATM backbone in order
not to congest the PSTN network. This approach has the advantage of being more bandwidth
efficient since the HDLC overhead is smaller than the ATM overhead. Additionally the SAR
(Segmentation And Reassembly) functionality can be centralized in the DLC. However, since
an IAD normally uses Ethernet to connect to a LAN some intelligence is required at the
subscriber side; to process the Ethernet MAC and also have SAR functionality. Fig 5 shows
DLC based subscriber access architecture.

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Fig 5: Overview over a TDM network architecture

SOCRATESTM – the Infineon SHDSL solution

Infineon Technologies, a leading supplier of communication ICs has recognized the trend
towards SHDSL at a very early stage. They have also been very active in the standardization
bodies in order to drive this new technology. Much know-how has been gathered on the way.
The first tangible result was the MuBIC in 1998, the world’s first commercially available TC-
PAM transceiver. With the second generation of this chip available today the advantages of
the SHDSL technology have been successfully demonstrated. The MuBIC consumes less than
380 mW power at 784 kbps, which is an industry first.

The third generation of Infineon’s TC-PAM transceiver family is the SOCRATESTM the first
fully standard compliant SHDSL transceiver according to both ETSI and ITU. This acronym
stand for SHDSL One Chip Rate Adaptive Transceiver with Embedded Start-up. This tiny
TQFP-144 packaged device contains a full single channel SHDSL transceiver from the PCM
framer to the line driver. Moreover it features a lot of additional blocks making it easy to use
in a system. An embedded microcontroller with internal RAM and ROM takes care of the

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complete start-up procedure and can even handle external tasks. A sophisticated digital PLL
offers a high degree of flexibility in terms of different clock synchronization models.
Although a crystal oscillator is provided, this is free running meaning that just one clock
source is necessary for any number of transceivers.

SOCRATESTM also integrates the DPSK coder and decoder required to enable the use of the
G.handshake activation procedure. An internal HDLC controller secures the EOC and a
second one can be used for the payload.

Despite of the high level of integration the device only consumes less than 1W all-inclusive.
Latest analog and DSP technology allow reaching and exceeding the performance
requirements defined in the applicable standards. Infineon offers a complete set of
complementary ICs providing one-stop customer system solutions for a variety of
applications. Future generations offering an even higher integration level and an enhanced
feature set are currently under development and will be available very soon. For detailed
information on the Infineon Technologies xDSL product family please visit our web site
http://www.infineon.com/dsl.

Marketing Contact:

Sascha Lindecke
Phone: +49 89 234-27258
Fax: +49 89 234-22120
E-mail: sascha.lindecke@infineon.com

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