Exploiting ultra-wide bandwidths is a promising approach to achieve the terabits per second (Tbps) data rates required to unlock emerging mobile applications like mobile extended reality and holographic telepresence. However, conventional digital systems are unable to exploit such bandwidths efficiently. In particular, the power consumption of ultra-fast, high-precision digital-to-analogue and analogue-to-digital converters (DACs/ADCs) for ultra-wide bandwidths becomes impractical. At the same time, achieving ultra-fast digital signal processing becomes extremely challenging in terms of power consumption and processing latency due to the complexity of state-of-the-art processing algorithms (e.g., “soft” detection/decoding) and the fact that the increased sampling rates challenge the speed capabilities of modern digital processors. To overcome these bottlenecks, there is a need for signal processing solutions that can, ideally, avoid DACs/ADCs while minimizing both the power consumption and processing latency. One potential approach in this direction is to design digital systems that do not require DACs/ADCs and perform all the corresponding processing directly in the analogue domain. Despite existing attempts to develop individual components of the transceiver chain in the analogue domain, as we discuss in detail in this work, the feasibility of complete analogue processing in ultra-fast wireless systems is still an open research topic. In addition, existing analogue-based approaches have inferior spectrum utilization than digital approaches, partly due to their inability to exploit the recent advances in digital systems such as “soft” detection/decoding. In this context, we also discuss the challenges related to performing “soft” detection/decoding directly in the analogue domain, as has been recently proposed by the DigiLogue processing concept, and we show with a simple example that analogue-based “soft” detection/decoding is feasible and can achieve the same error performance as digital approaches with more than $37\times $ power savings. In addition, we discuss several challenges related to the design of ultra-fast, fully analogue wireless receivers that can perform “soft” processing directly in the analogue domain and we suggest research directions to overcome these challenges.

中文翻译：

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通过模拟处理实现超节能、Tbps 无线系统：现有方法、挑战和前进方向


利用超宽带宽是一种很有前途的方法，可以实现解锁移动扩展现实和全息远程呈现等新兴移动应用所需的太比特每秒 (Tbps) 数据速率。然而，传统的数字系统无法有效地利用这样的带宽。特别是，用于超宽带宽的超快速、高精度数模和模数转换器（DAC/ADC）的功耗变得不切实际。同时，由于最先进的处理算法（例如“软”检测/解码）的复杂性和事实，实现超快速数字信号处理在功耗和处理延迟方面变得极具挑战性。采样率的提高对现代数字处理器的速度能力提出了挑战。为了克服这些瓶颈，需要一种信号处理解决方案，理想情况下可以避免使用 DAC/ADC，同时最大限度地减少功耗和处理延迟。这个方向的一种潜在方法是设计不需要 DAC/ADC 的数字系统，并直接在模拟域中执行所有相应的处理。尽管现有尝试在模拟领域开发收发器链的各个组件，正如我们在这项工作中详细讨论的那样，超高速无线系统中完整模拟处理的可行性仍然是一个开放的研究课题。此外，现有的基于模拟的方法的频谱利用率比数字方法差，部分原因是它们无法利用数字系统的最新进展，例如“软”检测/解码。 在此背景下，我们还讨论了与直接在模拟域中执行“软”检测/解码相关的挑战，正如最近由 DigiLogue 处理概念提出的那样，我们通过一个简单的示例展示了基于模拟的“软”检测/解码是可行的，可以实现与数字方法相同的错误性能，并节省超过 37 美元\倍的功耗。此外，我们还讨论了与超快速、全模拟无线接收器设计相关的几个挑战，这些接收器可以直接在模拟域中执行“软”处理，并提出了克服这些挑战的研究方向。