Design of Systems on Silicon

DS2
PLC Technology
Juan Carlos Riveiro
System Architecture Manager

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 Index

•DS2 Profile and Strategy

•DS2 PLC Technology

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 DS2 Profile and
Strategy

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 DS2 Profile

• Fabless silicon design house

• Mission: to become the leading supplier of

IPR (silicon and software) for high speed
Powerline Communications (PLC)

• Experienced in advanced communications

chipsets: QAM, OFDM, FFT, IFFT, FEC, ADCs,
DACs, etc.

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 DS2 Profile

• Incorporated 1998/February/15
• Key shareholder: ENDESA (the largest
electricity utility in Spain and South America)
• Experienced management and key personnel:
IBM, HP, Philips, Matra-MHS, Telefónica, EC-
R&D programs, INITEC, etc.
• Experience in state-of-the-art large critical
projects

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 DS2 Strategy

...
DS2and
isturn them silicon
a fabless into
Networkdesign
Servicehouse.
Providers...

Utility
DS2 DS2’s customers
... to whomare OEMs
DS2 ... for
sells a 3000
Head
Customer
and Ends Premises
which are
who integrate DS2 chipsets
million End-Users
Equipment
installed in… and
which
each isHome
MV/LV
placed
OEMsSUPPORTS
End-
supply DS2 PLC and
in their systems marketinworldwide Gateways allowing
User equipmentuser’s
telecom transformer
to devices in
utilities households LAN
in-home
service

Selected foundries produce HE CPE

DS2 chipsets

Foundry OEM
Home
OEMs produce...
Gatewa
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 DS2 Strategy

• Capitalize on company skills (communications,

DSP, electronic design, silicon,etc.)
• Alliances and joint developments with customers:
– Router and Telecom manufacturers:
• CISCO, Ascom, PACE, Nokia, Mitsubishi, Vayris...
– Silicon foundries, core providers:
• Samsung, AMS,...
– Electricity utilities:
• Endesa, EDF, ENEL, Sydkraft, TEPCO, EnBW...
– Electrical equipment supply:
• Schneider, Schlumberger, ABB...

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 DS2 PLC
Technology

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 DS2 Powerline
Topology

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 Powerline advantages

• Lowest cost equipment compared to competitors

technologies
• Ubiquitous due to electricity grid capillarity
• No new cabling is needed
• Shared bus means shared cost
• New business opportunities diversifying activities
• In-home LAN allowing multiple new applications
• Real broadband access to home at the lowest cost

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 Powerline problems

• Different cables used:

– Underground cable.
– Twisted overhead cable.
– Bare overhead line.
• Unstable medium, designed to carry power signal not
communications signal.
– Time-Variant (plug and unplug).
– Noisy medium (power supplies).
• Input impedance is a function of frequency and time, not flat
and invariant.
• Different topology per country, distance up to 1km.
• Point to Multipoint, with lots of taps and mismatching.

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 Communications
characteristics
• Impulse Response: Time Spread and Variation.
• Slow frequency selective
channel.
• Noise: Background, Ingress and Impulsive.
• Attenuation is a function of frequency,
distance and time.

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 Wideband
characteristics
• Multipath propagation
– Dispersion of the received signal in time domain. (Time spread, Ts)
– Frequency selectivity in frequency domain.
• If Tsignal < Ts  Intersymbol interference (ISI)
– Limits the maximum usable symbol rate (data rate).

QAM constellations
26/06/2001 with (a) no ISI, (b) 3% ISI
and (c) 10% ISI
 Wideband modulation
• Single carrier with an equalizer:
– High complexity and cost (silicon area)
– The channel must be known ( or accurately estimated).
– High bit-rate signal Time spread >>> symbol time.
• DS-SS (CDMA direct sequence spread spectrum):
– Using high bit-rate signal to achieve a high processing gain, a very
large bandwidth is required.
– In PLC environment, an equalizer is required too.
• OFDM:
– The technique for high bit-rate applications.
– High bit-rate signal Time spread <<< symbol time.

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 OFDM Modulation

• Imperative need for speed. Competing

against or complementing ADSL, Cable
modem and LMDS.
• Imperative need for adaptiveness. Every
Powerline is different, with lots of taps and
multipath propagation.
• Imperative need for low cost.
Solution OFDM
Transmission medium shared in
time and in frequency
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 OFDM Introduction

• The tx bandwidth is divided into many narrow

subchannels which are transmitted in parallel.
• Each subchannel is narrow enough so that the fading it
experiences is flat  no ISI.
• OFDM increases the spectral efficiently by allowing
subchannels to overlap

a) FD system
b) OFDM system

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 OFDM Introduction II
• Guard interval is added to each OFDM symbol to
eliminate ISI.
• Adaptive loading
– More bits/subchannel where SNR is sufficient.
– Could also adapt transmit power in each subchannel.
• Orthogonality:
– Carrier spacing is a multiple of 1/T.
– Carriers are linearly independent.

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 OFDM Modulation

• Ideal for slow changing multipath channels with

high time spread (Powerline case):
• No need for time equalization (complex FIR Filters).
• Simple frequency equalization (phase correction)
• Best Bps/Hz performance
• Spectrally dense signal
• Large number of carriers makes things easier:
• Synchronization is more robust and simple
• Easier to adapt to notches and ingress
• Better immunity to impulsive noise
• Increase the robustness against frequency selective
fading channels

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 DS2 OFDM

• 1280 OFDM carriers

• Data rate :
• Up to 27 Mbps in downstream channel
• Up to 18 Mbps in upstream channel

• Data rate per subcarrier adaptable according SNR

detected
• Nº bits per carrier : 0, 2, 4, 6 and 8
• Different carriers transmit at different data rates

• Modulation efficiency up to 7,25 bps/Hz

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 Low Cost
Implementation
• Low cost digital implementation:
– Only two major components:

• FFT processor
• FEC encoder/decoder
– 0.25 µm Process
– 304 plastic BGA package
• Low cost analogue implementation

– One ASIC (DSS7500) + Line Driver + Filters

– ASIC implements LNA, PGA, Buffer, CPLD DAC, ADC
– 0.6 µm Process
– 64 plastic QFP package

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 Access and In-home
LAN
• Three different frequency ranges are used:
– LINK 1: Low frequency band for ACCESS service
– LINK 2: High frequency band for IN-HOME service
– LINK LAN: IN-HOME service for xDSL, cable or wireless service
• Frequency bands are fully programmable
• Hardware needed will be:
– HE: Manager in LINK1, LINK LAN
– CPE: LINK1/2 and LINK LAN
– Home Gateway: Manager in LINK2

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 Summary
Performance
• Highest bit rates (up to 45 Mbps)
• Highest efficiency (7,25 bps/Hz)
• OFDM with 1280 carriers
• Adaptive bpc depending on SNR
• Lowest cost per bit (high integration)
• Adaptive QoS (users and services needs)
• IP and SNMP 100% compatible
• Access and In-Home service
• IN-HOME service for xDSL, cable or wireless service

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 Product Description

• HEs, CPEs and Home Gateways

have the same block diagram.

• DS2 chipsets integrate these

different blocks.

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DIGITAL INTERFACE Product Description

Data processing Analog Front

Digital Front End
block End

Line
Coupler

Data processing Analog Front

Digital Front End
block End

DISTRIBUTION
POWER LINE

Packets
Interaction
OFDM
Protection
Digitaldigital
are
Interface
with
built
andmodulation
filter
powerline
adding
interacts
power
error
is
in
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signal
with
correction
the
incoming
with
implemented
analogue
maximum
andandother
field
outgoing
power
data
transmission
data