Paradigm shift for jitter and noise in design and test > Gb/s communication systems (an invited paper for ICCD 2003)

As the communication speed/data rate approaches 1 Gb/s and beyond, timing jitter and amplitude noise become the major limiting factors for system performance. Traditional methods used in simulating, analyzing, modeling, and quantifying jitter and noise in terms of peak-to-peak and/or RMS become no longer accurate and sufficient. As such, new methods with better accuracy and comprehension are called for. We first discuss new jitter and noise modeling and analysis methods for both design and test based on statistical signal theory invoking probability density function (pdf) and cumulative distribution function (cdf) and the corresponding component distributions of deterministic and random to quantify jitter, noise, and bit error rate (BER) for communication systems. Secondly, we introduce jitter and noise transfer functions and their important roles-played in estimating relevant jitter, noise, and BER in the system. Thirdly, we introduce and illustrate how those methods can be used in designing and testing > Gb/s communication systems, such as fibre channel (FC), giga bit Ethernet (GBE), and PCI Express.