Patent GB-1105958-A (GB)
Title: Correction of distortion in transversal equilizers
Inventor: BECKER FLOYD KENNETH
IPC: H04L25/03
Filed: 1965-09-15
Abstract: 1,105,958. Adjustment of transversal equalizers. WESTERN ELECTRIC CO. Inc. 15 Sept., 1965 [16 Sept., 1964], No. 39326/65. Heading H4R. A transversal equalizer, i.e. a tapped delay line to which the received signal is applied and the outputs from the tappings of which are combined with relative amplitudes and polarity adjusted so as to compensate the distortion imposed on the signal due to transmission through a dispersive medium, is automatically set up for a particular transmission medium by transmitting a set of test pulses through the medium and applying the received pulses to the transversal equalizer the output of which is sampled at a number of time-spaced intervals for each pulse and, in accordance with the polarity of the sample, the multipliers on the output taps are incrementally adjusted to tend to reduce the sampled values to zero. Fig. 8 shows a system in which test pulses are applied, over a transmission medium 79 to the receiver which includes a transversal equalizer comprising a tapped delay line 82 the outputs of the tappings of which are applied, via attenuator counters 85 described below, to a summer 106 to be combined to produce a pulse output for the receiver 105. Each attenuator counter comprises a ladder attenuator, Fig. 9, the tappings of which provide outputs of ¢ , #, <SP>1</SP>/ 16 , &c. and which are connectable, via adding resistors 135 to 138 to a summing amplifier 139. The amplifier output, in opposite phase to its input, is applied as one input to a second summing amplifier 140, the other input to which is derived from the top of the ladder attenuator. The arrangement is such that by operation of the relays whose contacts are shown at 120A and 120B to 123A and 123B the output from amplifier 100 can take any one of a number of values from zero to a maximum value of either polarity, the zero value being obtained when only relay 120 is operated to connect a signal from the top of the ladder attenuator to amplifier 139, the output from which is equal, but in opposite phase, to the signal applied via resistor 130 to the summing amplifier 140. The relays 120-123 are operated by the counter stages 111, the counter being arranged to count either forwards or backwards according to the polarity of signals on lines 144 and 145 so that sequential pulses applied over line 89 to the counter can cause either an increase or a decrease in the signal output of amplifier 140. In the operation of the adjusting device for the attenuator counters a test pulse is applied to the input of delay line 85 and also via switch 107 to a peak detector 88 which generates a pulse to switch bistable 91 at the moment of occurrence of the peak of the test pulse. Operation of bi-stable 91 enables gate 94 to allow pulses, whose period is equal to the delay between adjacent taps of line 82, to be applied, via a delay equal to half a pulse period, to an indexing counter 90 so that an output appears on line 1 of counter 90. During the previous half-pulse period the test pulse at the first tap of line 82 is applied via the. attenuator counter 85 associated with this tap, to one input of summer 106. At the same time a distortion component leading the test pulse by 6 delay line tap periods is incident at tap 84A and is applied direct to the summer 106. In addition other distortion components are applied via other taps and their associated attenuator counters but at such low level that they may be ignored. The result of the addition in summer 106 is applied to a zero level slicer 97 to cause a signal to be fed into the first stage of shift register 86, of a polarity dependent on the polarity of the signal appearing at the output of summer 106. The shift register signal is such that, when applied to the counting direction control of the appropriate attenuator counter the counter will, on receiving a counting pulse, adjust the attenuator in the direction required to tend to reduce the summer 106 output to zero. The first pulse will then arrive, after the ¢ period delay, at the 1 output of indexing counter so that the shift register 90 is stepped on. Shortly after, the test pulse will appear at the second delay line tap to be fed, via the respective attenuator counter, to the summer 106 together with the distortion component, leading the test pulse by 5 line tap periods, which appears on tap 84A. Again the zero level slicer operates and feeds an appropriate signal into the first stage of shift register 86 which is then stepped on by the second output of indexing counter 90 to allow the attenuated test pulse fed from the third tap of the line to be compared with the distortion component leading the pulse by 4 tap periods. The process is repeated until the test pulse appears at tap 84A when the signal is fed from the summer to a high level slicer whose output is dependent on whether the test pulse is above or below a predetermined amplitude. This signal is fed via a sampler 99, operated by the seventh output of indexing counter 90, to adjust an attenuator counter 81, through which the signals are fed to the delay line, in such a direction as to tend to maintain the test pulse appearing at the centre tap of line 82 at a predetermined amplitude. The test pulse then proceeds down the line 82 and the pulse appearing at the outputs of the various attenuator counters connected to the succeeding taps is compared with the lagging distortion components at tap 84A in the same way as was done for the leading distortion components. After the indexing counter reaches 13 the shift register is full, with each stage containing a signal representing the adjustment direction required for the attenuator counter to which that stage is connected. No further signals are fed to the shift register while the indexing counter finishes its count to 16. At the count of sixteen a signal is sent to all the attenuator counters to adjust the counters by one step in the direction decided by the corresponding shift register stage. A pulse is also applied to bi-stable 91 to inhibit gate 94 and to allow the equipment to wait the arrival of the next test pulse at the input of peak detector 88, when the process is repeated to provide a further increment of adjustment toward the correct setting for the transversal equalizer attenuator counters. After a sequence of test pulses, the number of which depends on the number of adjustment steps in the attenuator counters, the attenuator counters will be set to the optimum value for the transversal equalizer for the particular transmission system being equalized.