SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ENHANCING THE PERFORMANCE OF WIDEBAND DIGITAL RF TRANSPORT SYSTEMS

A system and method for enhancing the performance of wideband digital RF transport systems is disclosed, which enables the transport of different bandwidth segments on a plurality of wideband channels by selecting an optimal clock sample rate for each bandwidth segment to be transported. Thus, the bandwidth segments are proportionally allocated so that an optimum amount of bandwidth can be transported at the serial bit rate. As one example, a system for enhancing the performance of a wideband digital RF transport system is disclosed, which includes a transmit unit, a receive unit, and an optical transmission medium connected between the transmit unit and the receive unit. The transmit unit includes a plurality of wideband RF analog signal inputs coupled to a plurality of analog-to-digital, digital down-converter (AID DDC) devices. Notably, the sample rate of each AID DDC device is determined by a respective sample clock. The digitized wideband RF segments at the outputs of the AID DDC devices are combined and converted to a frame structure, converted to serial form, and transmitted on the optical transmission medium to the receive unit. A light detector device in the receive unit detects the serial bit stream on the optical transmission medium, the serialized frames are converted back to the original frame format, and the original digitized wideband RF segments are reconstructed. Each digitized wideband RF segment is coupled to a respective D/A digital up-converter (D/A DUC) device associated with a particular wideband RF signal input on the transmit side. Notably, the output sample rate of each DI A DUC device is determined by a respective sample clock, which provides the same sample rate as that of the associated AID DDC device in the transmit unit. The sample rate of each AID DDC device (and associated D/A DUC device) is pre-selected so that the transmission medium can transport the optimum amount of RF bandwidth at the given serial bit rate.