HK1143010A - Method and system for enhancing the performance of wideband digital rf transport systems - Google Patents

Description

Method and system for enhancing the performance of wideband digital RF transport systems

Cross Reference to Related Applications

This application is related to pending U.S. patent application serial No. 11/398,879 (also referred to herein as the' 879 application) entitled "SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR improving thermal stability OF wide band DIGITAL RF TRANSPORT SYSTEMS". The' 879 application is incorporated herein by reference.

Technical Field

The present invention relates generally to the field of telecommunications, and more particularly, but not exclusively, to a method and system for enhancing the performance of wideband digital Radio Frequency (RF) transmission systems.

Background

In wireless voice and data communications, digital transmission of RF signals over long distances via fiber optic cables provides enhanced capacity and higher performance distributed coverage beyond existing analog RF transmission systems currently in use. An embodiment of such a DIGITAL RF transmission system linking a DIGITAL host unit TO one or more DIGITAL remote units TO achieve bi-directional synchronous DIGITAL RF distribution is disclosed in U.S. patent application publication No. 2004/0132474a1 entitled "POINT-TO-multiple POINT DIGITAL RADIO frequency transmission range," assigned TO ADC telecommunications company of Eden Prairie, minnesota, and incorporated herein in its entirety.

Although digital RF transmission systems today have advantages over other types of RF transmission systems, the transmission of large amounts of digital RF bandwidth (e.g., wideband) presents significant problems. For example, existing wideband digital RF transport systems combine multiple digital signals and pass them in serial form over a common physical layer between the transmitting and receiving devices involved. However, problems with existing digital RF transmission systems are: they inefficiently transmit the same amount of bandwidth for different wideband channels. In other words, the serial bit streams on the transport layers that carry the N wideband channels are all constrained to one sample rate, and the system transmission spectrum (RF) is sent point-to-point in the same bandwidth segment (e.g., 25MHz segment). Thus, because many of the wideband channels have bandwidth requirements that are less than (or different than) 25MHz (e.g., 5MHz, 10MHz, 30MHz, etc.), the overall bandwidth of existing wideband digital RF transport systems is essentially underutilized.

Furthermore, the system is designed for a single serial data rate and a single serial transmission mode. Therefore, existing systems must be completely replaced to use a new serial transmission mode at a different serial data rate. Also, because existing systems are designed for only a single data rate, existing systems will transmit at the designed serial data rate, regardless of how much input bandwidth the system is transmitting. This typically results in the transmission of null data to fill the serial bandwidth of the transmission medium.

Accordingly, there is an urgent need for a system and method that can enhance the performance of a wideband digital RF transmission system by: customization adapts bandwidth allocation to specific user needs on a common platform, customization adapts serial data rates to user needs and transport requirements, and enables use of lower cost transmission system equipment. As described in detail below, the present invention provides a method and system that addresses the above-described bandwidth underutilization problem and other related problems.

Disclosure of Invention

The present invention provides a method and system for enhancing the performance of wideband digital RF transmission systems that enables the selection of a serial data rate to be transmitted over a transmission medium. Thus, the present invention allows the system to adapt to different transmission media and allows the user to set the serial data rate based on the input bandwidth of the system. The present invention also enables different bandwidth segments to be transmitted on a plurality of wideband channels by selecting an optimal clock sampling rate for each bandwidth segment to be transmitted. Thus, the present invention allocates bandwidth segments proportionally so that an optimal amount of bandwidth can be transmitted at the serial bit rate.

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a system for enhancing the performance of a wideband digital RF transport system, comprising: a transmitting unit, a receiving unit device and an optical transmission medium connected between the transmitting unit and the receiving unit. The transmit unit includes a plurality of wideband RF analog signal inputs coupled to a plurality of analog-to-digital, digital down-converter (a/D DDC) devices. Notably, the sample rate of each A/D DDC device is determined by a respective sample clock. The digitized wideband RF signal segments at the output of the a/D DDC devices are combined. The serial data rate is set for serial transmission of the bandwidth. The combined wideband RF signal segments are converted to a frame structure based on the set serial rate. The frame structure is then converted to serial form and transmitted over an optical transmission medium to a receiving unit. A light detection device in the receiving unit detects a serial bit stream of frames on the light transmission medium, the serialized frames are converted back to the original frame format, and the original digitized wideband RF segment is reconstructed. Each digitized wideband RF segment is coupled to a respective D/a digital up-conversion (D/a DUC) device associated with a particular bandwidth RF signal input at the transmit side. Notably, the output sampling rate of each D/a DUC device is determined by a respective sampling clock, which provides the same sampling rate as the sampling rate of the associated a/D DDDC device in the transmit unit. The sample rate of each a/D DDC device (and associated D/a DUC device) is pre-selected so that the transport medium is able to transport the optimal amount of RF bandwidth at a given serial bit rate.

Brief description of the drawings

The novel features believed characteristic of the invention are set forth in the appended claims. The invention itself, however, as well as a preferred mode of use, further objectives and advantages thereof, will best be understood by reference to the following detailed description of an illustrative embodiment when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 depicts a schematic block diagram of an exemplary system for enhancing the performance of a wideband digital RF transport system, which may be used to implement a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 depicts a graphical representation of an exemplary frame structure, illustrating key principles of the present invention; and

fig. 3 depicts a flow diagram of an exemplary method for enhancing performance of a wideband digital RF transport system.

Detailed description of the preferred embodiments

Referring now to the drawings, FIG. 1 depicts a schematic block diagram of an exemplary system 100 for enhancing the performance of a wideband digital RF transport system, which may be used to implement a preferred embodiment of the present invention. The system 100 includes a first communication unit 101, a second communication unit 103, and a transmission medium 111 coupled between the first communication unit 101 and the second communication unit 103. For this exemplary embodiment, first communication unit 101 is a wideband digital RF transmit unit, second communication unit 103 is a wideband digital RF receive unit, and transmission medium 111 is a single mode (or multi-mode) optical fiber. Although system 100 is depicted as a unidirectional communication system for purposes of illustration, the scope of coverage of the present invention is not intended to be so limited, and system 100 may also be implemented as a bidirectional communication system (e.g., using transceivers on each side). Also, for the exemplary embodiment, system 100 may be implemented as a point-to-point digital RF transport system for cellular radiotelephone voice and data communications having a digital host unit (first communications unit 101) that provides an interface between a plurality of base station RF ports and an optical fiber, and a digital remote unit (second communications unit 103) that provides an interface between the optical fiber and a remote antenna. Further, although for the exemplary embodiment, transmission medium 111 is described as an optical transmission medium, the present invention is not intended to be so limited and may include within its scope any suitable transmission medium capable of transmitting a serial bit stream (e.g., millimeter wave radio links, microwave radio links, satellite radio links, infrared wireless links, coaxial cables, etc.).

For the exemplary embodiment, the first communication unit 101 includes a plurality of input interfaces 102a-102 n. For the exemplary embodiment, each input interface 102a-102n is implemented with an A/DDDC device. The input of each A/D DDC device 102a-102n couples a respective analog frequency band (or channel) into the associated A/D DDC device. For example, each A/D DDC device 102a-102n may receive an input analog frequency band (e.g., a frequency band from a base transceiver station) at a relatively high rate and digitize and downconvert the respective frequency band into suitable digital real and complex baseband signals (e.g., I/Q). For example, the output from each A/D converter section of the A/D DDC devices 102a-102n may be a series of real samples representing a real (symmetric positive and negative frequencies) signal within a specified Nyquist zone. The output from each DDC section may be a baseband signal (centered at 0 Hz) with asymmetric positive and negative frequencies, consisting of two sample streams (real and imaginary parts), each at half the sampling rate of an equal real-valued signal.

Notably, in the exemplary embodiment depicted in fig. 1, the input interfaces 102a-102n to the communication unit 101 are implemented with a plurality of a/D DDC devices that can accept a plurality of analog RF bandwidths, although the invention is not intended to be so limited. In other embodiments, the input interface may be implemented with other types of input devices to accept other types of bandwidths. For example, to accept multiple RF inputs, each input interface device 102a-102n may be implemented as follows: a single a/D converter (no DDC) operating at IF (e.g., real digital output), a dual a/D converter (no DDC) operating at baseband (e.g., complex I/Q digital output), or a single or dual a/D converter operating at a high sample rate and followed by digital down-conversion (DDC) to output a lower sample rate representation (complex I/Q) that is part of the original frequency band. In another embodiment, each input interface device 102a-102n may be implemented with a direct digital input (typically a baseband I/Q) from a digital or "software defined" base station. In general, the plurality of input interfaces 102a-102n may be implemented with any suitable input interface device capable of accepting or inputting analog or digital wideband segments.

For the exemplary embodiment, each A/D DDC device 102a-102n may be implemented as part of a modular (e.g., pluggable) RFDART (digital-to-analog radio transceiver) card 105a-105n that can adjust bandwidth selection as determined by the user's needs. For example, in one embodiment, each A/D DDC device 102a-102n can be implemented as part of a DART card that passes 5MHz bandwidth segments. Notably, the sample rate of each A/D DDC device 102a-102n is determined by an associated sample clock 104a-104 n. Thus, by selecting an appropriate sample rate for each A/D DDC device 102a-102n, the present invention provides the ability to tailor the bandwidth allocation to the particular user's needs on the common transport platform being used. For this exemplary embodiment, each associated sampling clock 104a-104n can also be implemented as part of a respective modular DART card 105a-105 n.

For example, one or more users may desire to transmit a combination of one 5MHz segment and three 15MHz segments from a digital host unit (e.g., first communication unit 101) to a digital remote unit (e.g., second communication unit 103) via an optical fiber (e.g., transmission medium 111). For a given serial bit rate on the fiber, an appropriate sampling rate may be selected for the sample clock 104a-104n associated with each A/D DDC device 102a-102n to be used. For this embodiment, assume that a 5MHz segment is to be input to A/D DDC device 102a, and each of A/D DDC devices 102b, 102c, and 102D (where "n" is equal to 4 in this case) is designed to accept a respective one of the three 15MHz segments to be transmitted. The sampling rate for sampling clock 104a is selected to accommodate the transmission of a 5MHz segment (band) at a given serial bit rate, and the sampling rates for sampling clocks 104b-104d are selected to accommodate the transmission of respective 15MHz segments (bands) at the given serial bit rate. In practical applications, the sample rate of sample clocks 104b-104d (e.g., approximately 45Msps) is typically three times the sample rate of sample clock 104a (e.g., approximately 15Msps) for a given serial bit rate on the fiber. In any case, it should be readily understood that the invention is not intended to be limited to a particular set of clock sample rates, band sizes that are acceptable for a particular A/D DDC device, the size of the band to be transmitted, or the serial bit rate of the optical transmission medium to be used.

For example, a suitable clock sampling rate may be selected to accommodate transmission of a 75MHz segment of input from a particular A/D DDC device over an optical fiber at a particular serial bit rate (e.g., 15 times the clock sampling rate for a 5MHz segment). As another example, assume that each A/D DDC device 102a-102n is designed to handle frequencies in a 10MHz bandwidth. In this case, a suitable sampling rate for each sampling clock may be selected to accommodate transmission of a 10MHz band and/or a band of multiples of 10MHz (e.g., a 30MHz band whose sampling rate is three times the sampling rate for the 10MHz band). In other words, the present invention enables a user to transmit only the required amount of bandwidth per a/D DDC device.

For the exemplary embodiment, the digitized output of each A/D DDC device 102a-102n is coupled to a mapper/framer device 106. In essence, the mapper section of mapper/framer device 106 multiplexes together the digitized bands at the outputs of the plurality of A/D DDC devices 102a-102n, and the framer section of mapper/framer device 106 converts the multiplexed digitized bands into a suitable frame structure format.

Mapper/framer device 106 is capable of adjusting the selection of frame sizes, which can be determined by user needs. In this embodiment, the frame size is adjustable by selecting the number of slots in each frame. The number of slots is set by the associated controller 107 and the frames are generated by the mapper/framer device 106. The controller 107 is user definable to set the number of slots per frame anywhere between the minimum and maximum values. The number of slots per frame is directly related to the serial data rate transmitted over the transmission medium 111. Notably, a lower number of slots per frame results in less bandwidth being transmitted and thus a lower possible serial data rate with a constant frame rate. For example, in one embodiment, a serial data rate of 1.5GHz contains sufficient bandwidth for 6 slots per frame, while a serial data rate of 3GHz contains sufficient bandwidth for 12 slots per frame. For this embodiment, the controller 107 is a software algorithm. However, controller 107 may be a hardware device, or any other mechanism capable of receiving input from a user and controlling the generation of frames by mapper/framer device 106.

The maximum number of slots per frame is limited by the maximum serial data rate of the transmission medium 111. For example, in one embodiment, transmission medium 111 is a millimeter wave radio having a maximum serial data rate of 1.5 GHz. As previously mentioned, the 1.5GHz transmission rate contains sufficient bandwidth of 6 slots per frame, and thus, in this embodiment, 6 slots is the maximum number of slots that can be scheduled in each frame without loss of data. However, the serial data rate may be set lower than the maximum value in consideration of user preference, thereby arranging a smaller number of slots in each frame. Some transmission media may not allow transmission at a serial data rate below the maximum value, and therefore, in this case, the serial data rate is set to the serial data rate of the transmission medium.

The minimum number of slots per frame is determined by the total amount of bandwidth transmitted on the transmission medium 111. The total number of bandwidths is equal to the sum of the bandwidths from each of the a/D DDC devices 102a-102c (in this case, n — 3). For example, if A/D DDC 102a has an input bandwidth of 5MHz, A/D DDC 102b has an input bandwidth of 15MHz, and A/D DDC 102c has an input bandwidth of 5MHz, then the total bandwidth is 25 MHz. The 25MHz input bandwidth fills 4 slots in a frame, so the minimum number of slots per frame is 4. Thus, in this exemplary embodiment, the number of slots per frame may be set to 4, 5, or 6, with the transmission medium having a serial data rate of 1.5GHz and a total input bandwidth of 25 MHz.

By selecting the appropriate number of slots per frame, the present invention provides the ability to customize the serial data rate through the transmission medium 111. For example, first communication unit 101 and second communication unit device 103 may initially be installed to communicate over millimeter wave transmission medium 111 at 1.5 GHz. Thus, the serial data rate is specified to be 1.5GHz, and the number of slots per frame is set to 6 slots to match the serial data rate of 1.5 GHz. Subsequently, if the millimeter wave technology is updated to support a serial data rate of 3.0GHz, the first communication unit 101 and the second communication unit 103 are pre-specified to a 3.0GHz serial data rate and 12 slots per frame. Thus, the first communication unit 101 and the second communication unit 103 are easily adaptable to different transmission media and different serial data rates. Although for this exemplary embodiment the frame size is adjusted to change the serial data rate, the invention is not intended to be so limited and may include within its scope any means of adjusting the amount of data transmitted on the transmission medium (e.g., adjusting the rate at which frames are sent, changing the size of time slots, etc.).

In another embodiment, the first communication unit 101 and the second communication unit 103 transmit data over a dark fiber optic cable (e.g., the transmission medium 101). The dark fiber provider may charge a usage fee based on the serial data rate being transmitted over the above fiber. In this embodiment, the first communication unit 101 accepts a total RF bandwidth of 40MHz, which requires 6 slots per frame. Thus, the first communication unit 101 is provisioned with 6 slots per frame and a serial data rate of 1.5 GHz. Thus, rather than transmitting at higher data rates such as 3.0GHz and filling additional slots with null data, the royalty is paid only based on the actual serial data required by system 100.

In any case, the frames containing the multiplexed band segments are coupled from mapper/framer device 106 to serializer device 108, which serializer device 108 converts the parallel frame data from mapper/framer device 106 into a serial bit stream. Serial data from serializer device 108 is coupled to optical transmit device 110. The optical transmission device 110 processes the data and converts the data into encoded optical pulses that form a serial bit stream. An injection laser diode or other suitable light source generates light pulses that are concentrated into a light-transmitting medium (e.g., fiber optic cable) 111 by a suitable optical lens. For the exemplary embodiment, mapper/framer device 106, serializer 108, and transmit device 110 are all implemented as part of a serial radio frequency (SeRF) communicator 109. SeRF communicator 109 receives the digital signal from each DART card 105a-105n and transmits a serial data stream over optical transmission medium 111 to another SeRF communicator 119 on second communications unit 103. In one embodiment, optical transmission medium 111 is a single mode optical fiber. In another embodiment, the light-transmitting medium 111 is a multimode optical fiber. Notably, an optical transmission medium is used for this exemplary embodiment, but the invention is not intended to be so limited and can include within its scope of coverage any suitable transmission medium capable of transmitting a serial bit stream.

For this exemplary embodiment, the second communication unit 103 includes a receiving device 112, the receiving device 112 including a light sensitive means that detects pulsed light signals (e.g., a serial bit stream of frames) on the transmission medium 111, converts the light signals into digital signals, and transmits them in serial form to the deserializer device 114. Again, it should be understood that although a photosensitive device is used in this exemplary embodiment, the present invention is not intended to be so limited and can include within its scope of coverage any suitable device capable of receiving and/or detecting a serial bit stream from the particular transmission medium being used.

Deserializer device 114 converts the serial frame data from receiving device 112 into parallel frame data that is coupled to demapper/deframer device 116. Essentially, the demapper/deframer device 116 demultiplexes the parallel frame data and extracts bandwidth segments from the demultiplexed frames. Similar to mapper/framer 106, demapper/deframer device 116 is capable of adjusting the selection of framing sizes, which may be determined by user requirements. The number of slots in each frame deconstructed by the demapper/deframer device 116 is set by the associated controller 117. Similar to the controller 107, the controller 117 is user definable to set the number of slots per frame anywhere between the minimum and maximum values. For this embodiment, the controller 117 is a software algorithm. However, the controller 117 may be a hardware device, or any other mechanism capable of receiving input from a user and controlling the deconstruction of frames by the demapper/deframer device 116.

The extracted bandwidth segments are coupled to inputs of the appropriate output interfaces 118a-118 n. For the exemplary embodiment, each output interface 118a-118n is implemented for a digital-to-analog (D/A) digital up-conversion (D/A DUC) device that is implemented on DART cards 115a-115 n. Each D/ADUC apparatus 118a-118n converts the complex digital baseband signal to a real passband signal. For example, each digital baseband signal may be filtered, converted to a suitable sample rate by a respective sampling clock 120a-120n, upconverted to a suitable frequency, and modulated onto an analog signal. For the exemplary embodiment, each sampling clock 120a-120n is implemented on a respective DART card 115a-115 n. For the exemplary embodiment, the sampling rate of each sampling clock 120a-120n is selected to be the same as the sampling rate of the corresponding sampling clock 104a-104n in the first communication unit 101. Thus, the analog bandwidth segment input to the first communication unit 101 is transmitted as a serial bit stream over the optical transmission medium 111 and reconstructed at the corresponding output of the second communication unit 103.

Notably, in the exemplary embodiment depicted in fig. 1, the output interfaces 102a-102n of the communication unit 103 are implemented with a plurality of D/a DUC devices that may output a plurality of analog RF bandwidths, although the invention is not intended to be so limited. In other embodiments, the output interface may be implemented with other types of output devices for other types of bandwidths. For example, in the second embodiment, each output interface 118a-118n may be implemented with a single D/a converter and analog up-converter in order to process real digital signals at its input. In another embodiment, to process complex digital signals at its inputs, each output interface 118a-118n may be implemented with a dual D/A converter and an analog up-converter, or a DUC (e.g., a digital up-converter) and a dual D/A converter. In general, the plurality of output interfaces 118a-118n may be implemented with any suitable output interface device capable of outputting analog or digital wideband segments.

Fig. 2 depicts a graphical representation of an exemplary frame structure 200, illustrating key principles of the present invention. In essence, the frame structure shown in FIG. 2 illustrates how the present invention allocates bandwidth proportionally, which allows a user to maximize the amount of bandwidth that can be transmitted over a serial bit stream. Thus, the present invention enables a user to efficiently transmit different bandwidths on multiple wideband channels, rather than having to inefficiently transmit the same amount of bandwidth on those channels.

In particular, with reference to the exemplary embodiment, it may be assumed that four different bandwidths are to be transmitted by the system 100 depicted in fig. 1. Thus, for this embodiment, a bandwidth A (5MHz RF) is input to A/D DDC device 202a, a bandwidth B (40MHz RF) is input to A/D DDC device 202B, a bandwidth C (25MHz RF) is input to A/D DDC device 202C, and a bandwidth D (5MHz RF) is input to A/D DDC device 202D. The respective sample clocks 204a-204D input unique sample rates to the associated A/D DDC devices 202 a-202D. The outputs from the a/D devices 202a-202D are coupled to a mapper/framer device 206 and a serializer device (not shown) that multiplexes or merges the separate bandwidth segments (A, B, C and D) and constructs an appropriate frame 208 that includes the bandwidth segment for transmission. For this exemplary frame structure, assume that the frame rate is approximately 15MHz and that each of the 12 slots of the frame includes 16 bits of digitized RF (with 14 bits of payload). The sample rate of sample clock 204a is selected to be about 15Msps (for a 5MHz bandwidth segment), about 90Msps (for a 40MHz bandwidth segment) for sample clock 204b, about 60Msps (for a 25MHz bandwidth segment) for sample clock 204c, and about 15Msps (for a 5MHz bandwidth segment) for sample clock 204 d. Thus, as shown in this embodiment, the bandwidth in frame 208 is allocated proportionally by transmitting one slot for bandwidth a (5MHz), 6 slots for bandwidth B (40MHz), four slots for bandwidth C (25MHz), and one slot for bandwidth D (5 MHz).

Fig. 3 depicts a flow diagram of an exemplary method 300 for enhancing performance of a wideband digital RF transport system. In the exemplary embodiment, method 300 is performed according to the exemplary embodiment described with reference to fig. 1 and 2, however, the invention is not intended to be so limited. For example, method 300 may be performed on any wideband digital RF transport system having the ability to set a serial data rate for serial transmission.

The method 300 begins by inputting a plurality of bandwidths to the input interfaces 102a-102n (302). The input interfaces 102a-102n transmit the multiple bandwidths to the mapper/framer device 106. The associated controller 107 sets the serial data rate for serial transmission of multiple bandwidths (306). Using the set serial data rate, the associated controller 107 controls the mapper/framer 106(308) as the mapper framer 106 adjusts the plurality of bandwidths based on the set serial data rate. In this embodiment, the user provides the controller 107 to set the serial data rate and the mapper/framer 106 adjusts the multiple bandwidths by arranging a desired number of slots from the multiple bandwidths into each frame generated by the mapper/framer 106. Although for this exemplary embodiment the frame size is adjusted to match the plurality of bandwidths to the serial data rate, the invention is not intended to be so limited and may include within its scope any means of adjusting the plurality of bandwidths, including, for example: adjust the rate at which frames are transmitted, or change the size of the time slots.

The plurality of bandwidths is converted to a serial form by the serializer 108 (310). Once the plurality of bandwidths are in serial form, they are converted into a plurality of encoded signals by the transmitting device 110 (312). The transmission device 110 then transmits the plurality of encoded signals to the second communication device 103 via the transmission medium 111. Although the steps of method 300 have been described in a certain order for this exemplary embodiment, the present invention is not intended to be so limited, and the present invention may include variations in the order of the steps, unless expressly limited in this method.

The description of the present invention has been presented for purposes of illustration and description, and is not intended to be exhaustive or limited to the invention in the form disclosed. Many modifications and variations will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art. The embodiments were chosen and described in order to best explain the principles of the invention, the practical application, and to enable others of ordinary skill in the art to understand the invention for various embodiments with various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated.

Claims (25)

1. A method for enhancing the performance of a wideband digital RF transport system, the method comprising the steps of:

inputting a plurality of bandwidths;

setting a serial data rate for serial transmission of the plurality of bandwidths;

adjusting the plurality of bandwidths based on the set serial data rate;

converting the plurality of bandwidths into a serial form;

converting the plurality of bandwidths in serial form into a plurality of encoded signals; and

transmitting the plurality of encoded signals over a transmission medium.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

a respective input sampling rate is set for each of the plurality of input bandwidths.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

setting a serial data rate for serial reception of the plurality of bandwidths in serial form;

detecting the plurality of bandwidths in serial form from the plurality of encoded signals;

converting the plurality of bandwidths in serial form to parallel form; and

converting the plurality of bandwidths to a second plurality of bandwidths.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising the steps of:

an output sampling rate is set for each of the plurality of bandwidths.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of adjusting the plurality of bandwidths further comprises the steps of:

converting the plurality of bandwidths into at least one frame structure, wherein the frame structure is configured to be transmitted at the serial data rate.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising the steps of:

controlling, by a controller, a conversion of the plurality of bandwidths into at least one frame structure.

7. A method for enhancing the performance of a wideband digital RF transport system, the method comprising the steps of:

inputting a plurality of bandwidths;

converting each of the plurality of bandwidths into a plurality of slots;

combining the plurality of time slots from each bandwidth;

setting the number of time slots of each frame based on the serial data rate;

forming a plurality of frames from at least a portion of the plurality of time slots combined, each frame having a set number of the time slots;

converting the plurality of frames to a serial form;

converting the plurality of frames in serial form into a plurality of encoded signals; and

transmitting the plurality of encoded signals over a transmission medium at the serial data rate.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising the steps of:

setting a respective input sampling rate for each of the plurality of input bandwidths;

sampling each of the plurality of bandwidths at a respective sampling rate for each of the plurality of bandwidths to form digital sampled data for each bandwidth; and

wherein the step of converting each of the plurality of bandwidths converts the digital sample data for each bandwidth into a plurality of slots.

9. The method of claim 7, further comprising the steps of:

setting a serial data rate for serial reception of the plurality of bandwidths;

detecting the at least one frame structure from the plurality of encoded signals;

converting the detected at least one frame structure into a parallel form;

deconstructing the at least one frame based on the set serial data rate to produce the combined plurality of slots;

separating the combined plurality of time slots; and

converting the plurality of time slots to a second plurality of bandwidths.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising the step of:

an output sampling rate is set for each of the plurality of bandwidths.

11. The method of claim 7, wherein the step of converting the combined plurality of bandwidths is performed by a framer device.

12. The method of claim 7, wherein the step of setting the number of time slots per frame is performed by a controller device.

13. A system for enhancing the performance of a wideband digital RF transport system, the system comprising:

a plurality of bandwidth input interface devices;

a plurality of sample rate devices coupled to the plurality of bandwidth input interface devices, each sample rate device of the each sample rate device configured to set an input sample rate of the associated bandwidth input interface device; and

a framer device coupled to an output of each bandwidth input interface device and configured to generate a first frame structure from the output of the bandwidth input interface device when a serial data rate is set to a first rate and configured to generate a second frame structure from the output of the bandwidth input interface device when the serial data rate is set to a second rate.

14. The system of claim 13, further comprising:

a control unit coupled to the framer device and configured to control generation of the frames by the framer device.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the controller controls the number of slots per frame.

16. The system of claim 13, wherein the plurality of bandwidth interface devices comprises a plurality of analog-to-digital down-converters.

17. The system of claim 13, wherein the plurality of sample rate devices comprises a plurality of sample clocks.

18. The system of claim 13, wherein the transmission device comprises a laser transmitter device and the transmission medium comprises an optical fiber.

19. The system of claim 13, further comprising:

a mapper in combination with the framer device;

a serializer device coupled to an output of the framer device;

a transmit device coupled to an output of the serializer device; and

a transmission medium coupled to an output of the transmission device.

20. The system of claim 19, further comprising:

a digital signal detection device coupled to the transmission medium;

a deserializer device coupled to an output of the digital signal detection device;

a de-framer device coupled to an output of the de-serializer device and configured to de-frame a first frame when the serial data rate is set to a first rate and configured to de-frame a second frame when the serial data rate is set to a second rate;

a control unit coupled to the deframer device and configured to control deconstruction of the deframer device; and

a plurality of output interface devices.

21. A system for enhancing performance of a wideband digital RF transport system, comprising:

a plurality of bandwidth input interface devices;

a plurality of sample rate devices coupled to the plurality of bandwidth input interface devices, each sample rate device of the plurality of sample rate devices configured to set an input sample rate of an associated bandwidth input interface device;

a mapper/framer device coupled to an output of each bandwidth input interface device and configured to generate a frame structure from the output of the bandwidth input interface device;

a control unit coupled to the mapper/framer and configured to set a first serial data rate and control the mapper/framer to generate a first frame structure based on the first serial data rate, and configured to set a second serial data rate and control the mapper/framer to generate a second frame structure based on the second data rate;

a serializer device coupled to an output of the framer device; and

a transmit device coupled to an output of the serializer device and configured to transmit at a serial data rate set by the control unit.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the controller controls the number of slots per frame.

23. The system of claim 21, wherein the transmission device comprises a laser transmitter device and the transmission medium comprises an optical fiber.

24. The system of claim 21, further comprising:

a transmission medium coupled to an output of the transmission device.

25. The system of claim 24, further comprising:

a digital signal detection device coupled to the transmission medium;

a deserializer device coupled to an output of the digital signal detection device;

a de-mapper/de-framer device coupled to an output of the de-serializer device and configured to de-structure frames; and

a control unit coupled to the demapper/deframer device and configured to set a first serial data rate and control the demapper/deframer to deconstruct a first frame structure based on the first serial data rate and configured to set a second serial data rate and control the demapper/deframer to deconstruct a second frame structure based on the second data rate; and

a plurality of output interface devices.