Comparison of discrete multitone and carrierless AM/PM techniques for line equalization

The design and performance of the Discrete Multitone (DMT) transceiver is compared with the Carrierless Amplitude Phase modulation (CAP) transceiver. The theories of both techniques are summarized and the architecture of each is studied for the unshielded twisted-pair cable environment. It is shown that the DMT system is well suited for equalization at low transmission rates and the CAP system is well suited for high-speed transmission applications. With increase in speed, the hardware penalty increases for the DMT equalizer unlike in the CAP equalizer where the hardware penalty is weakly dependent on speed.