Design and ASIC implementation of DUC/DDC for communication systems

TL;DR

This paper presents the design and ASIC implementation of DUC and DDC techniques to enable audio signal transmission over power lines by using tunable carrier frequencies and DSP sample rate conversion.

Contribution

It introduces a novel ASIC design for DUC and DDC tailored for power line communication systems with tunable carrier frequencies.

Findings

Successful ASIC implementation of DUC/DDC for power line communication

Effective tuning of carrier frequency from 200 KHz to 500 KHz

Improved signal transmission quality over electrical distribution networks.

Abstract

Communication systems use the concept of transmitting information using the electrical distribution network as a communication channel. To enable the transmission data signal modulated on a carrier signal is superimposed on the electrical wires. Typical power lines are designed to handle 50/60 Hz of AC power signal; however they can carry the signals up to 500 KHz frequency. This work aims to aid transmission/reception of an audio signal in the spectrum from 300 Hz to 4000 Hz using PLCC on a tunable carrier frequency in the spectrum from 200 KHz to 500 KHz. For digital amplitude modulation the sampling rate of the carrier and the audio signal has to be matched. Tunable carrier generation can be achieved with Direct Digital Synthesizers at a desired sampling rate. DSP Sample rate conversion techniques are very useful to make the sampling circuits to work on their own sampling rates which are fine for the data/modulated-carrier signal's bandwidth. This also simplifies the complexity of the sampling circuits. Digital Up Conversion (DUC) and Digital Down Conversion (DDC) are DSP sample rate conversion techniques which refer to increasing and decreasing the sampling rate of a signal respectively.