Investigation of phantom circuit benefits for next generation xDSL systems

Abstract

SummaryThis paper is focused on measurements and analysis of phantom mode benefits in G.fast and next generation xDSL systems. The investigation is based on real measurements performed for a multi‐quad metallic cable together with theoretical evaluations of phantom circuit potentials. Because the presence of phantom circuits leads into increasing the summary crosstalk level in a metallic cable, the application of a phantom mode is questionable in practice. That is why the investigation was performed, and conclusions provided in this paper can be helpful to decide potential benefits of this method for future applications. The elimination of a crosstalk can be performed by using advanced modulation techniques such as vectored discrete multi‐tone modulation (VDMT); however, its application in practice is limited because of its complexity and computational demands. That is why several scenarios are currently being discussed with either no VDMT application or with only partial crosstalk compensation. Because of that, this paper is focused on comparing the results for a first scenario without using any far‐end crosstalk (FEXT) elimination technique, whereas a second scenario is based on partial FEXT suppression by VDMT application, to decide the effectiveness of using phantom modes in practice. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.