A Reconfigurable Digital Platform for the Real-Time Emulation of Broadband Copper Access Networks

This paper presents a reconfigurable platform for the real-time digital emulation of broadband copper access networks. The instrument, which uses hard real-time digital-signal-processing techniques on Xilinx Virtex II field-programmable gate arrays, is capable of accurately reproducing the physical layer of a digital subscriber line (DSL). The magnitude and the true phase of the insertion and return loss of the twisted pair access loop, which consists of cables with various characteristics and length, are digitally emulated over the full DSL bandwidth. The innovative character and advantages of digital emulation techniques over conventional analog loop emulation are demonstrated, and its performance is assessed using several test cases.