Digital Communications Test and Measurement : High-Speed Physical Layer Characterization

by Derickson, Dennis; Müller, Marcus

• ISBN13: 9780132209106
• ISBN10: 0132209101
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2007-12-10
• Publisher: Prentice Hall

Summary

A Comprehensive Guide to Physical Layer Test and Measurement of Digital Communication Links Today's new data communication and computer interconnection systems run at unprecedented speeds, presenting new challenges not only in the design, but also in troubleshooting, test, and measurement. This book assembles contributions from practitioners at top test and measurement companies, component manufacturers,and universities. It brings together information that has never been broadly accessible before-information that was previously buried in application notes, seminar and conference presentations, short courses, and unpublished works. Readers will gain a thorough understanding of the inner workings of digital high-speed systems, and learn how the different aspects of such systems can be tested. The editors and contributors cover key areas in test and measurement of transmitters (digital waveform and jitter analysis and bit error ratio), receivers (sensitivity, jitter tolerance, and PLL/CDR characterization), and high-speed channel characterization (in time and frequency domain). Extensive illustrations are provided throughout. Coverage includes Signal integrity from a measurement point of view Digital waveform analysis using high bandwidth real-time and sampling (equivalent time) oscilloscopes Bit error ratio measurements for both electrical and optical links Extensive coverage on the topic of jitter in high-speed networks State-of-the-art optical sampling techniques for analysis of 100 Gbit/s + signals Receiver characterization: clock recovery, phase locked loops, jitter tolerance and transfer functions, sensitivity testing, and stressed-waveform receiver testing Channel and system characterization: TDR/T and frequency domain-based alternatives Testing and measuring PC architecture communication links: PCIexpress, SATA, and FB DIMM

Author Biography

Dennis Derickson is an assistant professor at California Polytechnic State University. He spent eighteen years as member of technical staff and project manager at Hewlett-Packard and Agilent Technologies before serving as applications engineering manager for Cierra Photonics. He has authored or coauthored fifty publications in high-speed communications and is the editor of Fiber Optic Test and Measurement (Prentice Hall, 1998). Dennis has a Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Marcus Müller is an R&D lead engineer with Agilent Technologies' High-Speed Digital Test segment in Boeblingen, Germany. He specializes in bit error ratio and jitter analysis of high-speed links, and has contributed to new methods for total jitter measurement at low bit error ratios, and jitter tolerance test. Marcus received his M.Sc. degree from Stuttgart University, Germany, in 1999.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. xxi
About the Authors	p. xxvii
Acknowledgments	p. xxxiii
Fundamentals of Digital Communications Systems	p. 1
Introduction	p. 2
System Architectures	p. 2
Line Coding of Digital Signals	p. 12
Electrical Signaling	p. 23
Summary	p. 26
References	p. 26
Jitter Basics	p. 29
Definition of Jitter	p. 29
Jitter as a Statistical Phenomenon	p. 34
Total Jitter and Its Subcomponents	p. 38
Analytical Solutions for Jitter Mixtures	p. 42
The Dual Dirac Model	p. 52
Summary	p. 58
References	p. 59
Serial Communication Systems and Modulation Codes	p. 61
Introduction	p. 62
Encoders and Modulation Code Examples	p. 68
Telephone System History and Evolution	p. 89
SONET Design Requirements	p. 107
Measuring the Band-Pass Response	p. 112
Jitter	p. 114
Measuring Power Supply Noise Immunity	p. 120
Power Supply Distribution, Grounding, and Shielding	p. 123
Measuring SONET Jitter	p. 124
Modulation Codes for the Last Mile	p. 140
Gigabit Ethernet	p. 149
Summary	p. 163
References	p. 164
Bit Error Ratio Testing	p. 169
Basics of Bit Error Ratio Testing	p. 170
Bit Error Ratio Statistics	p. 178
Advanced BER Measurement Topics	p. 192
Summary	p. 193
References	p. 193
BERT Scan Measurements	p. 195
Basics of BERT Scan Measurements	p. 195
Sample Delay Scan	p. 200
Sample Threshold Scan	p. 226
Full Eye Scan	p. 228
Spectral Jitter Decomposition	p. 238
Summary	p. 241
References	p. 242
Waveform Analysis--Real-Time Scopes	p. 243
Principles of Operation of Real-Time Digital Oscilloscopes	p. 245
Eye Diagram Analysis on Real-Time Instruments	p. 258
Methods of Analyzing Individual Jitter Components	p. 279
Analysis of Composite Jitter	p. 299
Measurement Procedures	p. 302
Interpreting Jitter Measurement Results	p. 315
Summary	p. 325
References	p. 327
Characterizing High-Speed Digital Communications Signals and Systems with the Equivalent-Time Sampling Oscilloscope	p. 329
Sampling Oscilloscope Basics	p. 330
Triggering the Oscilloscope	p. 330
Oscilloscope Bandwidth and Sample Rate	p. 331
Waveform Acquisition Process for the Sampling Oscilloscope	p. 335
Sources of Instrumentation Noise	p. 346
Parametric Analysis of Waveforms	p. 350
The Effect of Oscilloscope Bandwidth on Waveform Results	p. 353
Measurements of the Eye Diagram	p. 358
Return-to-Zero Signals	p. 382
Advanced Jitter Analysis	p. 387
Summary	p. 417
References	p. 418
High-Speed Waveform Analysis Using All-Optical Sampling	p. 421
Introduction	p. 422
Principles of Optical Sampling	p. 427
Performance Measures of All-Optical Sampling Systems	p. 441
Timebase Designs	p. 464
Experimental Implementation and Key Building Blocks	p. 475
Related Applications and Possible Future Directions	p. 492
Summary	p. 498
References	p. 499
Clock Synthesis, Phase Locked Loops, and Clock Recovery	p. 505
Oscillators and Phase Noise	p. 506
Phase Locked Loops and Clock Synthesis	p. 510
Clock Data Recovery Circuits	p. 512
PLL and Clock Recovery Dynamic Behavior	p. 517
Measuring PLL Dynamics	p. 523
Measuring Phase Noise and Jitter Spectrum	p. 525
Summary	p. 531
References	p. 532
Jitter Tolerance Testing	p. 533
Introduction	p. 533
Jitter Tolerance: Basic Measurement Method and Test Setup	p. 536
Generation of Jitter Tolerance Test Signals	p. 539
Jitter Tolerance Measurement Method and Test Setup	p. 555
Summary	p. 560
References	p. 560
Sensitivity Test
Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.

Excerpts

Purpose of the Book An example of a digital communications link is an integrated circuit (IC) sending binary-level data to another receiving IC through a microstrip transmission line trace in an FR4 printed circuit board environment. At low data rates that do not challenge the performance edge of communication components, designs are robust. At data rates of 10 Gbit/s (now common in the industry), interrelated design issues in the transmitter, the communication channel, and the receiver become more pronounced. The engineering design effort in the area of high-speed digital links has been extensive. A field called signal integrity has been identified to help high-speed digital designers understand high-frequency design issues. The ultimate goal is to require fewer design cycles during product development. There are many excellent books in the area of signal integrity for digital communications systems (see the References section in Chapter 1 for a listing of recommended books). This book tackles one important subset of this broad signal integrity field: test and measurement techniques, especially for very high speed systems. It focuses on descriptions of test instrumentation hardware, theory of operation, and applications to digital communications links. The topic of jitter in digital systems is covered extensively. The primary topics for high-speed physical layer characterization are the following: Bit error ratio measurement High-speed digital waveform analysis Jitter in digital data streams Receiver testing Characterization of the physical interconnection structures It became clear to the authors of this book that there was not a good single source of reference information on the topic of digital communications test and measurement for the physical layer, and thus this book came into existence. The work combines the collective experience of authors from leading test and measurement organizations (Agilent, Circadiant, and Tektronix), component manufacturers, and university settings. The material in this book has been developed from application notes, seminars, conference presentations, short courses, and unpublished works from the last ten years. Test and measurement equipment companies as well as semiconductor manufacturers and even standards committees are producing a steady stream of application notes on selected high-speed digital test and measurement topics. These notes are often product oriented, and one must draw from a large number of sources to piece together a cohesive coverage of the topic. Much of the material has not had wide circulation to date. A trusted reference has been missing, and this work intends to fill this gap. This book takes the expertise gathered by test and measurement authors that was previously scattered in many places and puts it under a single cover. This book will be useful for technicians, engineers, and scientists who are involved in the digital communications industry or need to learn about it. The book is designed to address the needs of people new to the field and those intimately familiar with it. Digital communications engineers and technicians spend a good fraction of their lives characterizing their system, subsystem, and component performance. This book serves as a reference that adds cohesion to the wide range of topics that must be understood to succeed in system characterization. The coverage emphasizes an understanding of how the digital system works, how the test and measurement system is connected, and how an instrument does its job. Understanding instrument architectures and operation gives additional insight on limitations and flexibility of the measurements that can be performed. The book also provides insight into the characteristics of the devices under test. Illustrations are intentionally numerous because the authors believe that visual communica