The demand for higher broadband speeds is ever increasing whereas the deployment of full fibre to the premises is slower than initially predicted and remains costly. Solutions exploiting the existing, ubiquitous, copper network and increasing its capacity would be highly beneficial in the near term. One approach is to use surface wave (SW) transmission mode to transmit signals over the existing copper cabling network. We present proof-of-concept experimental SW data transmission on twisted pair cables. A surface wave launcher for low GHz carrier frequency operation is designed and optimised. Experimentally, we demonstrate data rates in excess of 12 Gb/s in a 1.15-3.25 GHz band over a 6.1 m twisted pair cable with an average bit error rate of $2.25 \times 10 ^{-5}$ , without coding or feedback implementation. Furthermore, higher frequency bands are tested with data rates up to 3.4 Gb/s displaying their potential for surface wave transmission. S-parameter measurements allow capacity estimations of SW data transmission on longer cable lengths using water-filling algorithms. Our calculations predict over 13 Gb/s capacity on a 100 m cable using a 3.5 GHz transmission bandwidth, this may be further extended by further increases to the bandwidth used for SW transmission.

中文翻译：

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在双绞线电缆上使用表面波进行多千兆数据通信的实验演示

对更高宽带速度的需求不断增加，而将全光纤部署到场所的速度比最初预测的要慢，而且成本仍然很高。利用现有的、无处不在的铜网络并增加其容量的解决方案将在短期内非常有益。一种方法是使用表面波 (SW) 传输模式通过现有的铜缆网络传输信号。我们展示了双绞线电缆上的概念验证实验短波数据传输。设计并优化了低GHz载频工作的表面波发射器。在实验中，我们展示了在 1.15-3.25 GHz 频段内，在 6.1 m 双绞线电缆上的数据速率超过 12 Gb/s，平均误码率为 $2.25 \times 10 ^{-5}$ ，无需编码或反馈实现。此外，更高的频带以高达 3.4 Gb/s 的数据速率进行了测试，显示了它们在表面波传输方面的潜力。S 参数测量允许使用注水算法在更长的电缆长度上估计 SW 数据传输的容量。我们的计算预测使用 3.5 GHz 传输带宽的 100 m 电缆上的容量将超过 13 Gb/s，这可以通过进一步增加用于 SW 传输的带宽来进一步扩展。