SBIR Phase II: Crosstalk Mitigation for Copper-Based Cellular and Access Backhaul

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase 2 project targets the realization of a cost-effective solution for achieving increased data throughputs in the crosstalk-constrained copper-medium-based cellular and access backhaul networks, to address the growing demand for capacity experienced in them. Existing equipment, confined to the use of twisted-pairs due to the unavailability of fiber in most locations, often avoids the use of spectrally efficient VDSL, whose high-capacity comes at a cost of vulnerability to interference. The technology developed in Phase 1 of this project, and its implementation in hardware and software as part of the Phase 2 project, will effectively address this vulnerability of VDSL and recover most of its potential capacity through crosstalk cancellation. The company?s key innovation is in non-iterative, low-latency, reduced-complexity, dynamic interference cancellation algorithms, which greatly enhance performance while requiring less than 10% of silicon-area increase in existing VDSL2 multi-channel solutions. The project will involve both research and development aspects, as well as system implementation challenges associated with the minimization of complexity and power consumption. Based on the Phase 1 project?s successful validation of the technology?s critically needed throughput enhancements and its commercial potential, it is anticipated that this technology will be widely incorporated in copper-based equipment. The broader impact/commercial potential of this project is in extending the useful life of the existing in-ground copper infrastructure, thus allowing equipment providers to continue to focus their resources on delivering ever-increasing bandwidths, while also offsetting the high expense of new fiber deployment. Benefits are also realized through the company?s partnerships with universities, where the company works closely with key faculty and with students, provides seminars, and has an ongoing internship program that results in the full-time hiring of graduates. According to publicly available reports, mobile data traffic in North America is expected to increase by a factor of over 20 by the year 2015. This massive increase in data consumption, brought on primarily by the rapid adoption of smart-phones and bandwidth-intensive applications, is already placing an enormous burden on the backhaul infrastructure, which carries telecommunications for cellular, internet and landline voice traffic. Resolution of the bandwidth congestion requires significant improvement in telecom infrastructure including backhaul and access, both of which are largely copper-based in North America. The company?s interference-mitigation technology will address this problem in a cost-effective manner by allowing the growing demand for bandwidth to be satisfied with the existing infrastructure.