Patent Abstract:
A receiver converts an analog signal, derived from light pulses in a GPON fiber optic system, to clean digital electrical signals. A photodetector and transimpedance amplifier (TIA) convert the light pulses to analog electrical signals. A reset signal generated by a media access controller (MAC) in the GPON system signifies the start of a new burst of data. The receiver has a switchable low pass filter that establishes the threshold voltage for determining whether the analog signal is a logical 1 or a logical 0. At the very start of a new burst, the low pass filter has a fast time constant to quickly establish the threshold voltage for the burst. At a later time during the burst, the low pass filter is switched to have a slow time constant to create a relatively stable threshold voltage.

Full Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     This invention relates to burst-mode digital receivers such as used in passive optical networks (PON) and, in particular, to a receiver that receives gigabit per second signals from multiple optical network units (ONUs) or other transmitters that generate signals having unknown transition levels. 
     BACKGROUND 
     PONs are used in point to multi-point communications applications.  FIG. 1  illustrates a simple example of a PON  10 . An optical line terminal (OLT)  12  is connected to the “head end” of the PON and is typically located in a local telephone exchange (a central office). The OLT  12  controls access to the shared PON and interconnects the PON with a wider telecommunications network. Examples of outside services connected to the PON may be cable television (CATV)  14 , an Internet network  16  (for VoIP and data), and any other wide area network (WAN)  18 . A connector bus or switch  19  connects the signals from the various services to the OLT  12  ports. The OLT  12  communicates with the bus  19  using serial or parallel electrical signals in well known formats. 
     The OLT  12  manages the incoming data from the outside sources, converts the data to light pulses, and transmits the data via one or more fiber optic cables to a plurality of optical network units (ONUs)  20 ,  21 ,  22 , which are the user ends of the PON, typically up to  10  km downstream from the OLT  12 . The ONUs are connected via wires to the ultimate users  23 - 25 . The OLT  12  also manages optical transmissions from the ONUs  20 - 22  to the outside network. If the fiber were run all the way to a home or office building an Optical Network Termination (ONT) would be needed. Whether the termination is an ONU or an ONT is not relevant to the present invention. 
     A PON is very efficient since only passive splitters  28  are used in the fiber optic network. The splitters  28  couple the fiber optic cable  34  from the OLT  12  to each fiber optic cable  30 - 32  leading to an ONU  20 - 22 . In a PON system, a light signal from a single fiber optic cable may be split into 64 or more fibers. 
     Standards for PON are described in various publications, such as ITU-T-G.984 (Gigabit PON). All these applicable standards are well-known to those skilled in the art and are incorporated by reference. 
     A transmitter  36  in the OLT  12  converts electrical data to light pulses using a laser diode. Light is transmitted by the OLT  12  to the ONUs at one wavelength, and light is transmitted by the ONUs back to the OLT at a different wavelength, so there is wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) in the PON. 
     A receiver  38  in the PON converts the optical signals received from the ONUs to electrical signals. 
     A media access controller (MAC)  40  controls the communications over the PON and the formatting of the data (e.g., packetizing, depacketizing, serial-parallel conversion, etc.). Data passing “upstream” over the PON from the ONUs to the OLT  12  are typically multiplexed according to a Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) technique in which data channels are separated in time, using assigned time slots, to avoid collisions at the OLT  12 . The OLT  12  transmits the data from the outside networks to the ONUs typically using a broadcast scheme, and the particular ONU having the destination address specified in the transmission then processes the data. The non-addressed ONUs ignore the transmission. Encryption is used for security. 
     The data coming from the ONUs is transmitted in packets using a certain protocol standard. Various protocols, known as Media Access Control (MAC) protocols, have been developed to control an ONU&#39;s upstream access to the shared capacity on a PON. MAC protocols may implement the TDMA multiplexing scheme in the upstream direction, or other packet-based data transfer schemes may be used that are more appropriate to especially high data rates or to a variable rate asymmetric data transport. 
     A typical PON configuration does not permit ONUs to communicate directly with each other and requires the MAC  40  to determine the order of transmissions and the time of transmission. 
     One popular type of MAC protocol described in the ITU standard for GPON specifies a minimum 32 bit guard time between packet cells to prevent collisions, a 44 bit preamble of alternating 1s and 0s for bit synchronization, a 20 bit delimiter to indicate the start of incoming payload data, followed by the fixed or variable length payload data. The payload data includes addresses and the primary data information. A simplified version of this protocol is illustrated in  FIG. 2 . 
     Since each ONU  20 - 22  is at a different distance from the OLT  12 , the round trip time for a packet will be different for each ONU. The MAC  40  in the OLT  12  has a stable reference clock that is used for the processing of the incoming digital signals. Since it is important that the bits from all the ONUs be received by the OLT  12  in phase, the MAC  40  introduces a phase correction for each ONU to use when transmitting so that all the ONUs have the same constant equalized round trip delay. This is called ranging. 
     The MAC  40  in a GPON system issues a programmable reset signal shortly after the end of a packet burst to reset the protocol sequence and any other circuitry needing a reset. The reset pulse ends shortly before the preamble. The reset pulse occurs during the guard time between bursts of data. Such MACs are well known and commercially available. 
     With data rates of 1.25 and 2.5 gigabits per second, and with the magnitudes of the light pulses from each ONU being different, conversion of the pulses of light to error-free electrical digital signals is very difficult. In a PON receiver, a photodetector converts the magnitude of a light pulse to a proportional analog current. This current is converted into an analog voltage by a transimpedance amplifier (TIA), and the output of the transimpedance amplifier is applied to a limiting amplifier (such as a comparator) that determines whether the analog signal is a logical 1 or a logical 0 bit. (The term “analog” is used herein even though the data transmitted is digital because the amplitudes of the logical 1 and 0 bits are variable due to the different distances of the transmitters.) The limiting amplifier then outputs a clean and valid digital signal. 
     The threshold voltage of the analog signal that the limiting amplifier uses for determining whether the light pulse is a logical 1 or a logical 0 is difficult to quickly establish since the magnitude of the light pulses received by the OLT vary for each ONU. The threshold voltage is optimally the midpoint between the voltage amplitudes of a logical 1 and logical 0. 
     For example,  FIG. 2  illustrates two simplified analog signals  44  and  46  outputted by the transimpedance amplifier for a “close” ONU  20  and for a “distant” ONU  22 , respectively. The optimum threshold voltage level  48  for determining whether the signal is a logical 1 or a logical 0 is ideally the midpoint between the peak voltage and minimum voltage. At very high speeds, it is very difficult to quickly establish the threshold voltage at the midpoint, as this is often implemented using two peak detectors and a resistor divider to detect the minimum and peak values. Not setting the threshold at the midpoint increases the chances of bit errors. 
     In another possible technique, the threshold voltage for determining whether the analog signal is a logical 1 or a logical 0 may be derived by obtaining the average magnitude of the analog pulses over time. The average may be obtained using a low pass filter (e.g., a capacitor and resistor having an RC time constant) to extract the DC component (assumed to be the average) of the data stream. If the analog signal is above the average of the data stream, it is assumed to be a logical 1. However, to prevent a series of 1s or 0s from significantly varying the threshold voltage, the time constant of the low pass filter must be relatively long/slow. A long RC time constant would result in a relatively long time, starting at the beginning of a packet cell, to establish an average since the filter capacitor voltage begins at an arbitrary voltage resulting from a previous burst from a different ONU. This would result in a high error rate until the capacitor voltage stabilized. 
     What is needed is an improved technique for determining whether an analog signal in a high data rate PON system, or other digital burst-mode system, is a logical 1 or a logical 0. 
     SUMMARY 
     In one embodiment of the invention, a receiver converts an analog signal, derived from light pulses in a fiber optic system, to binary electrical signals. The receiver is particularly applicable for use in a GPON system, where the peak magnitude of the analog signal varies with the distance between the transmitter and the receiver. In the example used to describe the invention, the receiver is in the OLT. 
     A photodetector and burst-mode-capable transimpedance amplifier (TIA) convert the light pulses received from the ONUs to analog electrical signals. 
     In the GPON protocol standard, there is a specified guard time between consecutive bursts of data (packet cells), and the packet starts with 44 alternating 1s and 0s in a preamble for bit synchronization. 
     In one embodiment  FIG. 3 , a reset signal generated by the MAC in the OLT to signify the start of a new burst of data from an ONU is utilized by the receiver. The receiver has a switchable low pass filter coupled to the analog signal output from the TIA. In the example used, the switchable low pass filter comprises a capacitor and a switchable resistance. The low pass filter establishes the threshold voltage for determining whether the analog signal is a logical 1 or a logical 0. At the very start of a new packet, when a new ONU transmission is about to be received by the OLT, a reset signal (shown as reset  2 ), generated by using the reset signal from the MAC (shown as reset  1 ), is applied to a switch that couples a low resistance (e.g., 10 ohms) to a low pass filter capacitor to cause the low pass filter to have a fast RC time constant. This enables the capacitor to quickly establish the average voltage using the 44 preamble bits. 
     This average (substantially a DC voltage) is then applied to the inverting input of a limiting amplifier. A limiting amplifier operates as a comparator that outputs a digital voltage with predetermined high and low levels. As used herein, the term limiting amplifier refers to any circuit that triggers when its differential input signals substantially cross and outputs a digital signal with predetermined high and low levels. The limiting amplifier may have hysteresis. 
     The analog signal from the TIA is directly applied to the noninverting input of the burst-mode-capable limiting amplifier. The crossing of the average by the analog signal determines whether the limiting amplifier outputs a digital 1 or a digital 0 at, for example, a PECL level. 
     The fast RC time constant would be too short to derive the average voltage of the non-preamble data since a long string of 1s or 0s in the payload data would significantly affect the average voltage due to the much lower frequency component of the data. Therefore, once the average has stabilized during the preamble, the switch is disabled, allowing a relatively high resistance (e.g., 1K ohms) to couple to the filter capacitor and to greatly increase the time constant to create a relatively stable threshold voltage for the payload data. 
     Thus, the threshold voltage is quickly established during the preamble phase of the packet, and the threshold voltage becomes very stable prior to the payload data being received. 
     The invention can be applied to any receiving system that receives bursts of digital data where a benefit is obtained by quickly establishing a threshold, followed by stabilizing the threshold. Any type of low pass filter having a controllable time constant may be used. 
     The particular timing generator described herein for providing the switch signaling uses only five components so it is very small and efficient. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  illustrates a prior art PON system. 
         FIG. 2  illustrates two analog waveforms representing two different bursts received at the OLT from two ONUs, where the magnitudes of the signals are generally inversely proportional to the distance between the ONU and the OLT due to signal loss through the fiber and the number of splits in the PON. 
         FIG. 3  is a schematic of a receiver in accordance with one embodiment of the invention that can be used as the receiver in the PON system of  FIG. 1 . 
         FIGS. 4   a - 4   c  illustrates: 1) sample waveforms of the analog signal output from the transimpedance amplifier for two sequential packets with the low pass filter voltage superimposed over the analog signals; 2) the reset  1  and reset  2  signals; and 3) the digital signals output by the limiting amplifier. 
         FIG. 5  is a flowchart describing the receiving of a new packet by the receiver of  FIG. 3  from an ONU. 
         FIG. 6  illustrates a more general receiving system for any suitable application. 
         FIG. 7  illustrates the reset  1  and reset  2  waveforms that may be used in the embodiment of  FIG. 6 . 
       Elements labeled with the same numeral in various figures may be identical. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       FIG. 3  illustrates one embodiment of a receiver  50 , which may substitute for the receiver  38  in the GPON system  10  of  FIG. 1 . 
     A fiber optic cable  34  is terminated proximate to a photodetector  54 . In  FIG. 3 , the photodetector  54  is a photodetector diode connected in a reverse bias configuration. An optical signal applied to the photodetector  54  causes the photodetector  54  to conduct a current proportional to the intensity of the optical signal. It is assumed the fiber optic cable  34  is coupled to receive bursts of data from the various ONUs in  FIG. 1 , where the ONUs transmit in assigned time slots determined by the MAC  40  of  FIG. 1 . 
     The pulses of analog current through the photodetector  54  are applied to the input of a transimpedance amplifier (TIA)  56 . The TIA  56  is a high-speed burst-mode TIA that converts the current to a single-ended or differential analog voltage at its outputs. TIAs are well known. The TIA  56  in the example has a differential signal output. The inverting output of the TIA  56  is not used and is connected to a load resistor  58  for proper operation. The particular burst-mode TIA used in this example requires a load resistor, but other TIAs may not. Other high-speed TIAs that are burst-mode capable and support a DC-coupling interface would also work. 
     The non-inverting output of the TIA  56  is connected to a load resistor  60  and to a non-inverting input (In) of a limiting amplifier  62 . Amplifier  62  is a burst-mode differential amplifier that outputs differential signals (Dout and /Dout) to be further processed by the MAC and other well-known circuits used in an OLT, such as clock and data recovery (CDR) circuits, registers, serial to-parallel converters, decoders, depacketizers, etc. Limiting amplifiers are well known. 
     The non-inverting output of the TIA  56  is also coupled to the inverting input (/In) of the amplifier  62  via a relatively high-value resistor (e.g., 1K ohms)  64 . A low value (e.g., 10 ohms) resistor  66  is coupled in parallel with resistor  64  when MOSFET switch  68  is closed, causing the parallel resistance to be approximately 10 ohms. A second MOSFET switch  70  is coupled between the differential inputs of the amplifier  62  to cause the inputs of the amplifier  62  to temporarily have the same voltage to enable a much faster threshold acquisition. 
     A low pass (LP) filter capacitor  72  (e.g., 800 pF) is coupled to the inverting input of the amplifier  62  to create either a relatively slow RC time constant when coupled to resistor  64  (switch  68  off) or a fast RC time constant when coupled to resistor  66  (switch  68  on). 
     Switch  70  has its control terminal coupled to the conventional programmable reset  1  signal generated by the GPON MAC  40  ( FIG. 1 ) to signal the beginning of a new packet burst. The reset  1  signal is a pulse having a duration that lasts sometime between the termination of a previous packet and the approximate start of the next packet. The reset  1  signal pulse occurs during the predetermined guard time between packets in accordance with the protocol. The reset  1  signal is used by any circuitry within the OLT to reset the protocol algorithm and any other circuitry in preparation for processing a new burst of data, typically from a different ONU. The reset  1  signal is deasserted by the MAC immediately before or proximate to the start of the preamble bits (44 bits in GPON), which are used to establish bit synchronization. 
     Switch  68  has its control terminal connected to a stretched reset signal (reset  2 ), where the stretched time causes the reset  2  signal to remain asserted for a predetermined time after the reset  1  signal pulse has been deasserted. The reset  2  signal is deasserted sometime within the preamble time after the threshold voltage has stabilized to allow bit synchronization. 
     The reset signal  2  is asserted almost immediately after the reset  1  signal is asserted, 
     A pulse stretcher circuit  76  receives the reset  1  signal from the MAC  40 , causing MOSFET switch  78  to turn on. Resistor  80  is a relatively high-value pull-up resistor (e.g., 1K ohms). Switch  78  turning on immediately causes switch  82  to be off. Pull-up resistor  84  then asserts a high reset  2  signal to turn switch  68  on to create a fast RC time constant low pass filter. This occurs approximately simultaneously with the reset  1  signal being asserted, with any delay in the assertion of the reset  2  signal being caused by parasitic capacitances. 
     The reset  2  signal is coupled to the enable terminal (/EN) of the limiting amplifier  62 . Asserting the reset  2  signal therefore disables the limiting amplifier  62  since it is assumed the data will have errors prior to the threshold voltage being established by the low pass filter. 
     The pulse-stretching function of circuit  76  operates as follows. Once the reset  1  signal is deasserted and switch  78  turns off, the turning on of switch  82  is delayed by the charging of capacitor  92  (e.g.,  2  pF) through resistor  80 . The values of the capacitor  92  and resistor  80  determine the delay. Once capacitor  92  has charged to a certain level, the capacitor voltage turns on switch  82  to deassert the reset  2  signal. 
     Thus, after the reset  1  pulse is deasserted, the stretched reset  2  signal remains asserted. As a result, as soon as the reset  1  signal is deasserted, switch  70  turns off to stop shorting together the limiting amplifier  62  input terminals, the limiting amplifier  62  remains disabled by a high /EN signal, and the low pass filter has a fast time constant (switch  68  is on by a high reset  2  signal). 
     The TIA  56  then receives the new packet of pulses from an ONU, starting with the preamble bits. The capacitor  72 , forming the low pass filter with the fast RC time constant through resistor  66 , quickly charges to the average level of the preamble bits to establish a DC threshold for the limiting amplifier  62 . While the capacitor  72  voltage is ramping up, the limiting amplifier  62  is disabled by the reset  2  signal so there are no bit errors. 
     The circuit  76  operates as a timing generator for the switching control signals, where the timing is triggered by the burst indicator signal (reset  1  signal). The circuit  76  has a minimum number of components and is therefore extremely small. The circuit  76  may be used in any application that requires a stretched pulse signal. 
       FIG. 4  shows abbreviated simulated graphs. The number of pulses in the packets of  FIG. 4  does not coincide with the pulses in an actual GPON packet.  FIG. 4  illustrates a graph  86  of the reset  1  signal pulse and the stretched reset  2  signal pulse vs. time. It is assumed that all circuits trigger at the midpoint of a ramping waveform. Graph  90  illustrates the analog signal  91  at the non-inverting input (In) of the limiting amplifier  62  for two sequential bursts from two ONUs. The time 0.00 to 10 nsec is a guard time between bursts. The preamble bits begin at 10 nsec, and the delimiter bits (followed by the payload data) begin at about 40 nsec. The reset  1  signal is deasserted at about 10 nsec to begin the low pass filtering by capacitor  72 . 
     Graph  90  also illustrates the voltage  92  at the filter capacitor  72 , which is the threshold voltage applied to the inverting input (/In) of the limiting amplifier  62 . The threshold voltage becomes stable at about 25 nsec. The stretched reset  2  signal is set so that the reset  2  signal is deasserted shortly after the threshold voltage has become stable. 
     Deasserting the reset  2  signal enables the limiting amplifier  62  (/EN becomes low) and turns off switch  68 . Turning off switch  68  removes the low value resistor  66  from the filter so that the RC time constant is determined by the high value resistor  64 . Thus, the low pass filter becomes very stable and is not significantly affected by a long string of 1s or 0s in the packet. 
     As seen in the graphs  86  and  90  of  FIG. 4 , the reset  2  signal is deasserted at approximately 25 nsec, sometime during the preamble. As soon as the reset  2  signal switches low, the slow RC time constant and the limiting amplifier  62  are enabled. Switching of circuitry is assumed to occur at approximately the midpoint of the reset  2  signal amplitude. 
     Once the limiting amplifier  62  is enabled, accurate Dout and inverted Dout (/Dout) digital signals from the limiting amplifier  62  are generated, as shown in graph  96  of  FIG. 4 . 
     The invention allows for a very fast generation of an accurate threshold voltage using a low pass filter with a fast time constant, followed by switching to a slow RC time constant once the threshold is established to generate a very stable threshold voltage. The circuit also disables the limiting amplifier  62  until the stable threshold voltage is established. 
     In graph  90  of  FIG. 4 , the packet ends at about 100 nsec, followed by a guard time and another packet at about 110 nsec. The second packet is from a much more distant ONU so the light signals and the proportional electrical signals from the TIA  56  have a lower magnitude. As before, the reset  1  signal and stretched reset  2  signal cause the lower threshold voltage  92  to be quickly established shortly after the preamble bits begin. At about 125 nsec, the deassertion of the reset  2  signal provides a stable threshold voltage (slow RC time constant) and enables the limiting amplifier  62 , as shown in graph  96 . 
     In another embodiment, the limiting amplifier  62  may be enabled shortly before or after the RC time constant is made slower, as long as an accurate threshold has first been established. 
       FIG. 5  is a self-explanatory flowchart summarizing in steps  101 - 107  the process described above. 
     There are many ways to implement the low pass filter, the pulse stretcher circuit, the switching circuits, and the amplifiers while still using the concepts described herein. For example, multiple low pass filters may be used and selectively switched in, or multiple switches may switch in/out the various resistors. Switched capacitors or inductors may also be used to control the time constants. The filter may even use components other than capacitors and inductors. 
     The particular limiting amplifier used in the circuit example is Micrel&#39;s burst-mode 1.25 Gbps PECL limiting amplifier, SY88903AL. This device features fast signal recovery, fast loss-of-signal indicator, and can be directly interfaced with other stand-alone burst-mode TIAs. Limiting amplifiers or other types of comparators with similar capabilities are also suitable. 
     Although NMOS transistors are shown in the example, any type of MOSFET or other transistor may be used with slight changes in the circuitry. Further, the reset  1  signal may be used instead of the reset  2  signal to turn on switch  68 . Although the invention is particularly applicable for GPON systems due to the high data rates, the invention can be used in any other system, optical or non-optical, where a threshold voltage must be quickly set followed by stabilizing the threshold voltage using a low pass filter with a slower time constant. 
     It is noted that the signals applied to the noninverting and inverting inputs of the various components can be reversed, and the receiver will still generate digital signals that may or may not need to be ultimately inverted, depending on the desired polarity of the signals. 
       FIGS. 6 and 7  illustrate a more general type of circuit that embodies the invention. 
     In  FIG. 6 , at the end of a guard time period between bursts of data, a burst indicator signal  110  from an external source indicates that a burst is about to start. In the example given, the signal  110  is high for all or a portion of the guard time, and the transition to logic “low” of the signal  110  indicates a burst is about to begin. The signal  110  is applied to a timing generator  112 . During the guard time, the reset  1  signal generated by the timing generator  112  causes a switch  114  to short the inputs of a differential amplifier  116  together to essentially reset a low pass filter  118  to a starting level (see  FIG. 7 ). The use of the reset  1  signal may be optional depending on the particular circuit and application. In one embodiment, the reset  1  signal is the same as the burst indicator signal  110 . 
     The timing generator  112  outputs a reset  2  signal that controls the low pass filter  118  to have a fast time constant at the start of the burst of data. In the example of  FIG. 7 , the reset  2  signal is generated during the guard time and remains asserted for a short time into the burst. The reset  2  signal may also be used to keep the differential amplifier  116  disabled until the low pass filter  118  outputs a stable voltage. Disabling the amplifier  116  may be optional if downstream circuitry has the ability to ignore data at the start of the burst while the low pass voltage is stabilizing. 
     A burst of data is then applied to the input terminal  120  from any source (not limited to a PON system). The data applied to terminal  120  may have a wide range of DC offsets, DC thresholds, and peak to peak magnitudes, which may vary from burst to burst. The data is applied to one input of the differential amplifier  116 . The low pass filter  118  quickly establishes a DC threshold voltage from the burst of data, and this decision threshold voltage is applied to the other input of the differential amplifier  116 . After a short period, it is assumed that threshold voltage has stabilized. At this time, the low pass filter  118  is switched to a much slower/longer time constant by the reset  2  signal generated by the timing generator  112 , and the differential amplifier  116  is enabled by, for example, the reset  2  signal. The differential amplifier  116  now outputs accurate digital data having fixed upper and lower voltage levels. The threshold voltage will be stable despite long strings of 1&#39;s and 0&#39;s in the bursts of data. 
     The timing signals may take any form and are not limited to the shapes and durations shown in the examples. 
     Having described the invention in detail, those skilled in the art will appreciate that, given the present disclosure, modifications may be made to the invention without departing from the spirit and inventive concepts described herein. Therefore, it is not intended that the scope of the invention be limited to the specific embodiments illustrated and described.

Technology Classification (CPC): 7