SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR TIMING RECOVERY WITH BANDWIDTH EXTENSION
20220158815 · 2022-05-19
Inventors
Cpc classification
H04L7/0087
ELECTRICITY
H04L7/0062
ELECTRICITY
International classification
Abstract
A receiver includes a feed-forward equalizer, a first detector, a jitter estimation circuit, and a jitter mitigation circuit. The feed-forward equalizer is configured to equalize channel gain of digitized samples of a received signal and to output equalized samples. The first detector is configured to detect symbols in the equalized samples. The jitter estimation circuit is configured to estimate jitter in the equalized samples by estimating a deviation in periodicity between pairs of the equalized samples. The jitter mitigation circuit comprises a linearized FIR filter configured to receive an input including the equalized samples or the detected symbols and to compensate inter symbol interference in the equalized samples due to the jitter as a function of the estimated jitter and an estimate of the inter symbol interference.
Claims
1. A receiver comprising: a feed-forward equalizer configured to equalize channel gain of digitized samples of a received signal and to output equalized samples; a first detector configured to detect symbols in the equalized samples; a jitter estimation circuit configured to estimate jitter in the equalized samples by estimating a deviation in periodicity between pairs of the equalized samples; and a jitter mitigation circuit comprising a linearized FIR filter configured to receive an input including the equalized samples or the detected symbols and to compensate inter symbol interference in the equalized samples due to the jitter as a function of the estimated jitter and an estimate of the inter symbol interference.
2. The receiver of claim 1 wherein the jitter mitigation circuit comprises: a multiplier configured to multiply an output of the linearized FIR filter by the estimated jitter to generate the estimate of the inter symbol interference; and a subtractor configured to subtract the estimate of the inter symbol interference from the equalized samples to generate an output signal with reduced inter symbol interference.
3. The receiver of claim 2 wherein the output signal is fed back to the jitter estimation circuit and wherein the jitter mitigation circuit reduces latency of the jitter estimation circuit by estimating the inter symbol interference and subtracting the estimate of the inter symbol interference from the equalized samples outside the jitter estimation circuit.
4. The receiver of claim 1 wherein the linearized FIR filter comprises a plurality of delay lines connected to each other in series and wherein outputs of the respective delay lines are multiplied by respective coefficients and summed to generate an output that is scaled by the estimated jitter to generate the estimate of the inter symbol interference.
5. The receiver of claim 4 further comprising a subtractor configured to subtract the estimate of the inter symbol interference from the equalized samples to generate an output signal with reduced inter symbol interference.
6. The receiver of claim 1 wherein the jitter estimation circuit comprises: an error generator configured to generate an error signal based on the detected symbols and an output of the jitter mitigation circuit; and a second detector configured to generate the estimated jitter based on the error signal and one of (i) the detected symbols and (ii) the estimate of the inter symbol interference.
7. A method for a receiver comprising: generating equalized samples by equalizing channel gain of digitized samples of a received signal; detecting symbols in the equalized samples; estimating jitter in the equalized samples by estimating a deviation in periodicity between pairs of the equalized samples; and processing, using a linearized FIR filter, an input including the equalized samples or the detected symbols; and compensating, based on the processing, inter symbol interference in the equalized samples due to the jitter as a function of the estimated jitter and an estimate of the inter symbol interference.
8. The method of claim 7 further comprising: generating the estimate of the inter symbol interference by multiplying an output of the linearized FIR filter by the estimated jitter; and generating an output signal with reduced inter symbol interference by subtracting the estimate of the inter symbol interference from the equalized samples.
9. The method of claim 8 further comprising: estimating the jitter based on the output signal; and reducing latency of a circuit estimating the jitter by estimating the inter symbol interference and subtracting the estimate of the inter symbol interference from the equalized samples outside the circuit.
10. The method of claim 7 wherein the linearized FIR filter comprises a plurality of delay lines connected to each other in series, the method further comprising: multiplying outputs of the respective delay lines by respective coefficients; generating an output by combining the multiplied outputs; and generating the estimate of the inter symbol interference by scaling the output by the estimated jitter.
11. The method of claim 10 further comprising generating an output signal with reduced inter symbol interference by subtracting the estimate of the inter symbol interference from the equalized samples.
12. The method of claim 8 further comprising: generating an error signal based on the detected symbols and the output signal; and generating the estimated jitter based on the error signal and one of (i) the detected symbols and (ii) the estimate of the inter symbol interference.
Description
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0012] The following diagrams are merely examples, which should not unduly limit the scope of the claims herein. One of ordinary skill in the art would recognize many other variations, modifications, and alternatives. It is also understood that the examples and embodiments described herein are for illustrative purposes only and that various modifications or changes in light thereof will be suggested to persons skilled in the art and are to be included within the spirit and purview of this process and scope of the appended claims.
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[0020]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
[0021] The present invention is directed to circuits and communication. More specifically, a specific embodiment of the present invention provides a timing recovery device with two stages. The first stage adjusts a clock signal, and the second stage provides further jitter mitigation by increasing the overall timing recovery tracking bandwidth. The second stage includes a jitter mitigation circuit, an error generator, a timing error detector and a tracking loop filter to reduce jitters associated with the clock signal. There are other embodiments as well.
[0022] The following description is presented to enable one of ordinary skill in the art to make and use the invention and to incorporate it in the context of particular applications. Various modifications, as well as a variety of uses in different applications will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art, and the general principles defined herein may be applied to a wide range of embodiments. Thus, the present invention is not intended to be limited to the embodiments presented, but is to be accorded the widest scope consistent with the principles and novel features disclosed herein.
[0023] In the following detailed description, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a more thorough understanding of the present invention. However, it will be apparent to one skilled in the art that the present invention may be practiced without necessarily being limited to these specific details. In other instances, well-known structures and devices are shown in block diagram form, rather than in detail, in order to avoid obscuring the present invention.
[0024] The reader's attention is directed to all papers and documents which are filed concurrently with this specification and which are open to public inspection with this specification, and the contents of all such papers and documents are incorporated herein by reference. All the features disclosed in this specification, (including any accompanying claims, abstract, and drawings) may be replaced by alternative features serving the same, equivalent or similar purpose, unless expressly stated otherwise. Thus, unless expressly stated otherwise, each feature disclosed is one example only of a generic series of equivalent or similar features.
[0025] Furthermore, any element in a claim that does not explicitly state “means for” performing a specified function, or “step for” performing a specific function, is not to be interpreted as a “means” or “step” clause as specified in 35 U.S.C. Section 112, Paragraph 6. In particular, the use of “step of” or “act of” in the Claims herein is not intended to invoke the provisions of 35 U.S.C. 112, Paragraph 6.
[0026] Please note, if used, the labels left, right, front, back, top, bottom, forward, reverse, clockwise and counter clockwise have been used for convenience purposes only and are not intended to imply any particular fixed direction. Instead, they are used to reflect relative locations and/or directions between various portions of an object.
[0027]
[0028] Timing information, extracted by timing recovery module 124, is important for data processing, as receiver 120 relies on the timing information to sample the received data. Regardless of whether link 130 is wired, wireless, or optical, timing recovery is essential, and the performance of the timing recovery mechanism directly affects the performance and reliability of data communication and data processing systems. For example, serializer/deserializer (SerDes), transceivers, data management systems, and other device are implemented with various types of timing recovery mechanisms. In some embodiments, timing recovery mechanisms according to the present invention are used in communication systems that use pulse amplitude modulation (PAM) signaling.
[0029] There are many considerations in digital timing recovery design. The performance of a digital timing recovery mechanism mainly depends on (or is limited by) loop latency and the signal to noise ratio (SNR) of the timing-error detector. It is to be appreciated that embodiments of the present invention address these mechanisms and take other considerations into account as well. In certain scenarios, the timing recovery process enables reliable communication with non-compliant transmitters. For example, a non-compliant transmitter may have jitters beyond the achievable bandwidth of a conventional timing recovery loop, and to address this problem, the jitter-tracking performance needs to be improved. Additionally, in a digital timing recovery scheme that closes timing at the analog sampling circuit, decreasing loop latency increases power consumption and/or decreases timing SNR. It is therefore to be appreciated that the present invention, in various embodiments, improves various aspects of timing recovery mechanisms that can be used in many applications.
[0030]
[0031] In timing recovery processes, untracked jitter induces timing-phase-error dependent intersymbol interference (ISI). While ISI can be compensated by a finite impulse response (FIR) filter, the tap amplitudes of the jitter mitigation circuit need to reflect the instantaneous residual jitter, which means that the jitter needs to be tracked. The second stage circuit 220 of the timing recovery device 200 compensates residual jitter less than 1 unit interval (UI) peak-to-peak in amplitude, and jitter compensation efficiency decreases as timing-phase error increases.
[0032] The timing recovery process starts with the sampled data, as received and processed by ADC 201. For example, the sampled data is generated by a sampler (e.g., sampler 121 in
[0033] The equalized data, provided by FFE 202, are processed by detector (DET) 203, which may be implemented with different types of mechanisms. For example, DET 203 may be implemented using a slicer, a decision feedback equalizer (DFE), a maximum likelihood sequence detector (MLSD), and/or other types of mechanisms. In a specific embodiment, DET 203 is implemented with a DFE that implements a first post-cursor tap and includes a slicer. An MLSD-based DET may also be implemented with, among other components, a slicer.
[0034] Error generator (ErrGen) 204 uses outputs of both FFE 202 and DET 203 as shown. For an ISI detector (e.g., DFE, MLSE), error generator 204 uses the slicer decisions from DET 203 to remove the (decision-dependent) cursor and ISI terms from the FFE output. When the DET 203 is implemented simply with a slicer, error generator 204 removes the decision-dependent cursor contribution from the FFE output.
[0035] Block 205 includes a timing error detector (TED) and a loop filter (LF). The TED uses the outputs of error generator 204 and DET 203 to generate an indication of whether the sampling process is early or late. The LF filters the TED output in order to generate a signal that controls the frequency of the clock generated by the DCO 206.
[0036] The performance of first stage circuit 210 is limited by, among other things, its loop latency. To provide an improvement in jitter tracking bandwidth, the latency of the second stage circuit 220 as implemented is much smaller than that of the first stage circuit 210. For example, the latency of first stage circuit 210 can be described as the total latency of its components (e.g., ADC, FFE, DET, ErrGen, TED, LF and DCO), which is larger than the total latency of the components in the second stage circuit 220. The first stage circuit 210, due to its latency limitations, cannot provide adequate jitter tracking bandwidth for some applications. It is to be appreciated that second stage circuit 220, optimized for both latency and accuracy, is effective in removing residual timing jitter from first stage circuit 210.
[0037] In certain embodiments, interference and/or reflection cancellation functions (not shown) are integrated with the jitter mitigation circuit 211 into a single impairment-mitigation block. To avoid increasing loop latency, these added functions, such as interference and reflection cancelation, can be performed prior to (or in parallel with) the jitter mitigation circuit.
[0038] As shown in
[0039] In
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[0041] Jitter mitigation mechanism 300 includes a jitter estimation circuit 311 and jitter mitigation circuit 309, which is expanded from
[0042] In certain embodiments, fewer taps (e.g., three or five taps) are used as the insertion loss of the channel decreases. At startup, the set of coefficients can be selected based on the FFE and DFE coefficients. The error generator 301, as shown, receives the value calculated at node 308. Node 308 provides the output r[l] of jitter mitigation circuit 309 that is the difference between value provided at line 310 and the value of node 305. Additionally, error generator 301 also uses the output of a DET block, which could be the second stage DET (e.g., block 212 in
e[l]=r[l]−d[l]
where r[l] is the output of the jitter mitigation FIR, and d[l] is the PAM level corresponding to the DET output. Otherwise, the output e[l] of the error generator 301, when β≠0, is:
e[l]=r[l]−(d[l]+β.Math.d[l−1])
[0043] The output e[l] of error generator 301 is processed at block 302, which includes a TED and an LF as shown. Block 302 is coupled to selector 303, which selects between the value at node 304 and DET signal d[l]. Depending on the implementation, the TED used in the second stage (e.g., block 214 in
T[l]=e[l].Math.(d[l+1]−d[l−1])
[0044] The output T[l] of an MMSE TED—where e[l] is the output of the error generator, and w[l] is the output from the non-cursor taps of the jitter mitigation FIR filter (immediately prior to its multiplication by θ)—is:
T[l]=e[l].Math.w[l],
[0045] A loop filter (LF) is implemented as a part of block 302, along with the TED. In various embodiments, the loop filter output 9 is the integral of some function q(⋅) of the TED output:
θ[l]=θ[l−1]+μ.Math.q(T(l))
For example, the LF is implemented using a proportional controller, and the LF output is:
θ[l]=θ[l−1]+k.sub.P.Math.T(l)
[0046] As another example, the LF is implemented using a proportional-integral controller, and its output is:
θ[l]=θ[l−1]+μ.Math.(T(l)+U[l])
where U[l]=U[l−1]+μ.sub.I.Math.T(l)
[0047] There are two primary factors affecting the overall jitter mitigation performance. The first is the jitter tracking control loop, that is, how well θ[l] tracks the residual timing jitter. The second is the jitter compensation data path equalizer, which determines how well the jitter mitigation FIR filter compensates residual ISI due to timing jitter.
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[0050]
[0051] In addition to the performance benefits, as illustrated in plots, timing recovery mechanisms according to the present invention also provide implementational advantages. For example, the jitter mitigation circuit and the second stage of a timing recovery device can be configured for modular implementation, thus allowing them to be incorporated into various systems and apparatus. In various implementations, timing recovery mechanisms according to the present invention extend timing recovery bandwidth to over 15 MHz without adding to the design requirements of other elements in the receiver (e.g., latency of existing receiver elements). Implemented in conjunction with the first stage timing recovery, the second stage timing recovery detects the residual jitter after the first-stage timing recovery. To obtain optimal overall performance, the peaking and bandwidth of the first stage are optimized with respect to the peaking and bandwidth of the second stage.
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[0054] While the above is a full description of the specific embodiments, various modifications, alternative constructions and equivalents may be used. Therefore, the above description and illustrations should not be taken as limiting the scope of the present invention which is defined by the appended claims.