Limits of Ultra-Wideband Communication over Copper

Wireline communication using the copper plant is one of the major access techniques. The shorter the wires, the larger is the frequency band that can be exploited in an economically feasible way. Several technologies using frequency bands up to 30 MHz have been standardized during the last decade. Properties of the wireline channel for frequencies above 30 MHz are to a large extent unexplored. This paper investigates the limits of "ultra-wideband" communication over very short copper cables in terms of exploitable bandwidth and data rate. Extrapolations of standard cable models, whose validity has been verified by means of measurements, are used for channel modeling. The CISPR 22 standard forms the basis for the analysis of ingress and egress.