[8]

Fundamental Limits to Communications with Analog-to-Digital Conversion at the Receiver

Stefan Krone and Gerhard Fettweis

Published at the 10th IEEE International Workshop on Signal Processing Advances in Wireless Communications (SPAWC'09)

Abstract: Analog-to-digital conversion at the receiver is known to be a stumbling block to the implementation of high data rate communications systems. It is desirable to answer the question of how the performance of a communications system is actually bounded when the analog-to-digital conversion stage is becoming its bottleneck. This paper studies the limits to communications with analog-to-digital conversion at the receiver, both from an information theoretic perspective as well as from a theoretical physics point of view. The maximum data rate that can be achieved for reliable transmission derives from the analog-to-digital conversion characteristics. Implications on optimal quantization and sampling rate are discussed. The principle of energy-time uncertainty leads to the fact that three quantization levels will allow for maximum data rate when operating at the frontiers of physics.

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Publications Publications, alphabetical order Publications 2008 Publications 2009 Publications 2010 Publications 2011 ICC 2009 PR 01/2009 Final Presentation	[8] Fundamental Limits to Communications with Analog-to-Digital Conversion at the Receiver Stefan Krone and Gerhard Fettweis Published at the 10th IEEE International Workshop on Signal Processing Advances in Wireless Communications (SPAWC'09) Abstract: Analog-to-digital conversion at the receiver is known to be a stumbling block to the implementation of high data rate communications systems. It is desirable to answer the question of how the performance of a communications system is actually bounded when the analog-to-digital conversion stage is becoming its bottleneck. This paper studies the limits to communications with analog-to-digital conversion at the receiver, both from an information theoretic perspective as well as from a theoretical physics point of view. The maximum data rate that can be achieved for reliable transmission derives from the analog-to-digital conversion characteristics. Implications on optimal quantization and sampling rate are discussed. The principle of energy-time uncertainty leads to the fact that three quantization levels will allow for maximum data rate when operating at the frontiers of physics.