Sliced bandwidth distortion prediction

A method of estimating distortion of a communications medium having a given bandwidth comprising:

• receiving a plurality of test signals, wherein each of the plurality of test signals has a test bandwidth that is a fraction of the given bandwidth, wherein each of the test signals occupies a different portion of the given bandwidth;
• determining a power of each of the plurality of test signals;
• and
• determining an amplitude ripple by evaluating the power of each of the plurality of test signals, wherein the amplitude ripple approximates an amplitude distortion of the communications medium having the given bandwidth.

A method comprising:

• estimating a time when a dominant channel distortion occurs for each of a plurality of received test signals, wherein each of the plurality of received test signals occupies a different position in frequency in a communications medium having a given bandwidth;
• determining a differential group delay for the times estimated for each of the plurality of received test signals;
• and
• approximating a phase distortion of the communications medium as the differential group delay.

A method comprising:

• estimating a power of each of a plurality of received test signals, wherein each of the plurality of received test signals occupies a different position in frequency in a communications medium having a given bandwidth;
• determining an amplitude ripple by evaluating the power estimated for each of the plurality of received test signals;
• and
• approximating an amplitude distortion of the communications medium as the amplitude ripple.

A system for estimating distortion of a communications medium having a given bandwidth comprising:

• a demodulator receiving a plurality of test signals, wherein each of the plurality of test signals has a test bandwidth that is a fraction of the given bandwidth, wherein each of the plurality of test signals occupies a different portion of the given bandwidth;
• a signal conditioner coupled to the demodulator;
• an equalizer coupled to the signal conditioner;
• a phase distortion estimator coupled to the equalizer, wherein the phase distortion estimator evaluates equalizer coefficients for each of the plurality of test signals to determine a time when a dominant channel distortion occurs and determines a differential group delay based upon the time for each of the plurality of test signals, wherein the differential group delay approximates a phase distortion of the communications medium.

A system for estimating distortion of a communications medium having a given bandwidth comprising:

• a demodulator receiving a plurality of test signals, wherein each of the plurality of test signals has a test bandwidth that is a fraction of the given bandwidth, wherein each of the plurality of test signals occupies a different portion of the given bandwidth;
• a signal conditioner coupled to the demodulator;
• means to determine the power of each of the plurality of test signals coupled to the signal conditioner;
• an amplitude distortion estimator coupled to the means, wherein the amplitude distortion estimator determines an amplitude ripple by evaluating the power of each of the plurality of test signals, wherein the amplitude ripple approximates an amplitude distortion of the communications medium.