Apparatuses and methods for asymmetric bi-directional signaling incorporating multi-level encoding are disclosed. An example apparatus may include first and second channels, a receiver coupled to the first and second channels, and first and second transmitters coupled to the first and second channels, respectively. The receiver may be configured to receive differential data signals to receive write data at a rate, and each of the first and second transmitters may be configured to encode a plurality of bits into a respective data signal and provide the respective data signals at the data rate.

For some applications such as high-speed communication over short-reach links, the complexity and associated high latency provided by existing modulators may be unsuitable. According to an aspect, the present disclosure provides a modulator that can reduce latency for applications such as 40 G/100 G communication over copper cables or SMF. The modulator has a symbol mapper for mapping a bit stream into symbols, and a multi-level encoder including an inner encoder and an outer encoder for encoding only a portion of the bit stream. In some implementations, the multi-level encoder is configured such that an information block size of the inner encoder is small and matches a field size of the outer encoder. Therefore, components that would be used to accommodate larger block sizes can be omitted. The effect is that complexity and latency can be reduced. According to another aspect, the present disclosure provides a demodulator that is complementary to the modulator.

A PAM4 signal generation apparatus is provided. The PAM4 signal generation apparatus includes a DFB, two EA modulators, an SOA, a PSR, a direct-current power source, two electrical-signal generators, and two amplitude-limiting amplifiers. The two electrical-signal generators and the two amplitude-limiting amplifiers are used to generate two NRZ electrical signals respectively, the DFB outputs two optical signals, the SOA amplifies an optical power of one of the optical signals, the two EA modulators use the NRZ electrical signals and the optical signals including a large signal and a small signal respectively to generate two NRZ optical signals respectively, and the two NRZ optical signals are multiplexed by the PSR to generate a PAM4 electrical signal. According to this apparatus, a linearity requirement is greatly lowered. PAM4 modulation is performed in an optical domain, and this prevents a PAM4 signal from being generated on an electrical signal.

A high-speed serial interface is provided. In one aspect, the high-speed serial interface uses three phase modulation for jointly encoding data and clock information. Accordingly, the need for de-skewing circuitry at the receiving end of the interface is eliminated, resulting in reduced link start-up time and improved link efficiency and power consumption. In one embodiment, the high-speed serial interface uses fewer signal conductors than conventional systems having separate conductors for data and clock information. In another embodiment, the serial interface allows for data to be transmitted at any speed without the receiving end having prior knowledge of the transmission data rate. In another aspect, the high-speed serial interface uses polarity encoded three phase modulation for jointly encoding data and clock information. This further increases the link capacity of the serial interface by allowing for more than one bit to be transmitted in any single baud interval.

For some applications such as high-speed communication over short-reach links, the complexity and associated high latency provided by existing modulators may be unsuitable. According to an aspect, the present disclosure provides a modulator that can reduce latency for applications such as 40G/100G communication over copper cables or SMF. The modulator has a symbol mapper for mapping a bit stream into symbols, and a multi-level encoder including an inner encoder and an outer encoder for encoding only a portion of the bit stream. In some implementations, the multi-level encoder is configured such that an information block size of the inner encoder is small and matches a field size of the outer encoder. Therefore, components that would be used to accommodate larger block sizes can be omitted. The effect is that complexity and latency can be reduced. According to another aspect, the present disclosure provides a demodulator that is complementary to the modulator.

The objective of the invention is to enable sharing, between layers in a network in which the layers are used to perform communications, resource information and information required for using paths. A network control system includes: a lower layer information storage unit, a lower layer control information conversion unit, an upper layer information storage unit, an upper layer control information conversion unit, an integrated layer information storage unit and a layer integration unit. The layer integration unit integrates, as virtual links, the information of flows, which are representative of communications among terminals in the lower layer, with the network information of the upper layer, thereby constituting the network information of the integrated layer. Further, the layer integration unit performs reciprocal exchanges of network information among the integrated layer information storage unit, the lower layer information storage unit and the upper layer information storage unit, said reciprocal exchanges including a process of giving, as the attribute information of the ports of the upper layer, label information required for using the virtual link provided by the lower layer.

A high speed serial interface is provided. In one aspect, the high speed serial interface uses three phase modulation for jointly encoding data and clock information. Accordingly, the need for de-skewing circuitry at the receiving end of the interface is eliminated, resulting in reduced link start-up time and improved link efficiency and power consumption. In one embodiment, the high speed serial interface uses fewer signal conductors than conventional systems having separate conductors for data and clock information. In another embodiment, the serial interface allows for data to be transmitted at any speed without the receiving end having prior knowledge of the transmission data rate. In another aspect, the high speed serial interface uses polarity encoded three phase modulation for jointly encoding data and clock information. This further increases the link capacity of the serial interface by allowing for more than one bit to be transmitted in any single baud interval.

A data processing method, including performing, by a transmit end device, mapping processing on L layers of information bits to generate L layers of modulation symbol sequences, where each layer of modulation symbol sequence includes U modulation symbols, the L layers of modulation symbol sequences correspond to a same time-frequency resource, and the U modulation symbols include at least one non-zero modulation symbol and at least one zero modulation symbol, performing precoding processing on each layer of modulation symbol sequence according to a precoding matrix to generate L layers of modulation symbol sequence matrixes, and performing superposition processing on the L layers of modulation symbol sequence matrixes to generate a to-be-sent symbol sequence matrix, where the to-be-sent symbol sequence matrix includes T element sequences in a first dimension, and the to-be-sent symbol sequence matrix includes U element sequences in a second dimension.

A sensor subassembly having a memory unit for storing a sensor data value from the sensor subassembly and a transmission unit for sending a data signal with information about the stored sensor data value to an external receiver at a data rate that is dependent on a clock frequency of a clock signal produced by the sensor subassembly. The transmission unit sends the data signal with the information about the stored sensor data value on the basis of a piece of trigger information in an externally received control signal.

A system for starting a point-to-multi-point serial communications system. The system includes a transmitter having a sync connection and a plurality of data outputs and a plurality of receivers, each of the plurality of receiver having a sync connection and a data input; the data input of each of the plurality of receivers being connected to a respective one of the plurality of data outputs of the transmitter; and the sync connection of the transmitter being connected, by a conductor, to the sync connection of each of the plurality of receivers, each of the plurality of receivers comprising a first impedance and a first switch, the first impedance and the first switch configured to establish, when the first switch is closed, a current path between the sync connection of the receiver and a first voltage source in the receiver.