An Experimental 800 Mbit/s Four-Level Repeater Compatible with the 60 MHz Analog System

The design and performance of an experimental 800 Mbit/s repeater for four-level digital transmission over a coaxial cable is described in this paper. The 800 Mbit/s digital system exceeds the 60 MHz analog system, both in capacity and in economy. The repeater is designed to operate in repeater housings located at 1.6 km maximum spacing to be compatible with the 60 MHz analog sytsem. A nonredundant four-level line code has been employed, using a newly developed quantized feedback dc restoration technique. The most important item in realizing the high-speed multilevel repeater is the reduction of intersymbol interference. A simple quantized feedback scheme and an adjustable three-tap transversal equalizer have been used to compensate for intersymbol interference. The experimental repeater has been tested for 1.1-1.7 km repeater spacings using 2.6/9.5 mm coaxial cable. The results show that an 800 Mbit/s repeater with 1.6 km maximum repeater spacing is feasible.