In digital communication, Cellonics TM offers a fundamental change to the way modem solutions have traditionally been designed and built. Cellonics TM technology introduces a simple and swift Carrier - Rate Decoding TM solution to the receiving and decoding of a modulated signal. It encodes and decodes signals at one symbol per cycle-a feature not found elsewhere. Its simplicity will obsolete the super heterodyne receiver design that has been in use since its invention by Major Edward Armstrong in 1918.In fact, according to one estimate, 98 % of the worlds radio systems are still based on this superheat design. Cellonics Inc. has invented and patented a number of circuits that mimic the above biological cell behavior. The Cellonics TM circuits are incredibly simple with advantages of low-cost, low power consumption and smallness of size. When applied in communication, the Cellonics TM technology is a fundamental modulation and demodulation technique. The Cellonics TM receivers are used as devices that generate pulses from the received analog signal and perform demodulation based on pulse counting Birth of Cellonics For the last 60 years, the way radio receivers are designed and built has undergone amazingly little change. Much of the current approach could be attributed to EH Armstrong, the oft -credited Father of FM, who invented the super heterodyne method in 1918.He further developed it into a complete FM commercial system in 1933 for use in public-radio broadcasting. Today, more than 98% of receivers in radios, television and mobile phones use this method. The subsystem used in the design consists of radio-frequency (RF) amplifiers mixers, phase-lock loops, filters, oscillators and other components, which are all complex, noisy, and power hungry. Capturing a communications element from the air to retrieve its modulated signal is not easy ,and a system often needs to spend thousands of carrier cycles to recover just one bit of information .This process of demodulation is inefficient ,and newly emerging schemes result in complex chips difficult and expensive to manufacture. So it was necessary to invent a new demodulation circuit, which does the job of conventional super heterodyne receiver but at afar lesser component count, faster and lower in power consumption and possessing greater signal robustness These requirements were met by designing a circuit which models the biological cell behavior as explained earlier. The technology for this, named CELLONICS, was invented by scientists from CWC (Center for Wireless communication) and Computational Science Department in Singapore. Principles of the Technology The Colonics technology is a revolutionary and unconventional approach based on the theory of nonlinear dynamical systems and modeled after biological cell behavior. When used in the field of communication, the technology has the ability to encode, transmit and decode digital information powerfully over a variety of physical channels, be they cables or wirelessly through air. CELLONICS ABSTRACT Cellonics is a new technology that may end slow modem connections and other communications problems forever. The new modulation and demodulation technology is called Cellonics. In general, this technology will allow for modem speeds that are 1,000 times faster than our present modems. The development is based on the way biological cells communicate with each other and nonlinear dynamical systems (NDS). Major telecoms, which are telecommunications companies, will benefit from the incredible speed, simplicity, and robustness of this new technology, as well as individual users. The impact of Cellonics is such that it effects a fundamental change in the way digital communications have traditionally been done. As such, many communication devices will benefit from its incredible simplicity, speed and robustness. Devices built with the Cellonics technology will save on chip/PCB real estate, power and implementation time. 1 INTRODUCTION In current technology, the ASCII uses a combination of ones and zeros to display a single letter of the alphabet . Then the data issent over radio frequency cycle to its destination where it is then decoded. The original technology also utilizes carrier signals as a reference which uses hundreds of wave cycles before a decoder can decide on the bit value , whether the bit is a one or a zero, in order to translate that into a single character. The Cellonics technology came about after studying biological cell behaviour. The study showed that human cells respond to stimuli and generate waveforms that consist of a continuous line of pulses separated by periods of silence. The Cellonics technology found a way to mimic these pulse signals and apply them to the communications industry . The Cellonics element accepts slow analog waveforms as input and in return produces predictable, fast pulse output, thus encoding digital information and sending it over communication channels. Nonlinear Dynamical Systems (NDS) are the mathematical formulations required to simulate the cell responses and were used in building Cellonics. Because the technique is nonlinear, performance can exceed the norm, but at the same time, implementation is straightforward. This technology will be most beneficial to businesses that do most of their work by remote and with the use of portable devices. The Cellonics technology will provide these devices with faster, better data for longer periods of time.Cellonics also utilizes a few discrete components, most of which are bypassed or consume very little power. This reduces the number of off the shelf components in portable devices while dramatically decreasing the power used, leading to a lower cost for the entire device. The non-portable devices of companies will benefit from the lack of components the machines have and the company will not have to worry so much about parts breaking. 2 PRINCIPLE OF CELLONICS TECHNOLOGY The Cellonics technology is a revolutionary and unconventional approach based on the theory of nonlinear dynamical systems (NDS) and modelled after biological cellbehaviour. In essence, theterm Cellonics is a euphermism for™electronic cells™. When used in the field of communications, the technology has the ability to encode, transmit and decodedigital information powerfully over a variety of physical channels, be they cables or wirelessly through the air. There has been much research over the past decades to study inter-cell communications. Laboratory studies have recorded electrical waveforms that show burst of spikes separated by periods of silence. For example, Fig shows the behaviour of the ß-cell and the Leech Nociceptor respectively. From these figures, we may observe that the slow waveforms trigger the fast pulse trains allowing the cells to convey information (as postulated bysome researchers).Note that while the fast pulse trains are always the same, the slow time-varying stimulus analog waveformscan take many arbitrary shapes. The number of the pulse trains varies according to the parameters of the slow analog waveforms. Thus, if a circuit can be found that accept an analog input waveform and outputs a set of pulse trains with predictable number of pulses in each burst, we have a very powerful means of encoding digital information and communicating it over a variety of physical channels. Cellonics has invented and patented a number of circuits that mimic the above biological cellbehaviour. The Cellonics circuits are incredibly simple with advantages of lowcost, low power consumption and smallnessof size. They can and have been used invarious applications such as communications and electronic circuits (gated oscillator, sigma delta modulator,delta modulator, clock multipliers, etc). When applied in communications, theCellonics technology is a fundamentalmodulation and demodulation technique. The Cellonics receivers are used as devices that generate pulses from the received analog signal and perform demodulation based on pulse counting and related algorithms. 1) The study of biological cell behaviour is ONLY an inspiration to the invention of Cellonics circuits. The Cellonics technology is NOT related to any neural network communications or neurophomic electronics. 2) Slow waveforms: Analogue waveforms that vary slowly with time. These waveforms can be in any arbitrary shape. 3) Fast waveforms/fast pulse trains: Waveform in the shape of pulses that varies rapidly with time 3 CELLONICS CIRCUITS Cellonics Inc. has developed and patented families of Cellonics circuits that are useful for various applications. One of these Cellonics circuits is an extremely simple circuit that exhibits the Scurve transfer characteristic. Fig 3a shows one of the possible circuit realizations. The circuit contains a negative impedance converter. Its iv transfer characteristic is shown in Fig 3b.Thetransfer characteristic consists of three different regions. The two lines at the top and bottom have positive slope, 1/RF and they represent the regions in which the Op-Amp is operating in the saturated (nonlinear) mode. In Fig 3b, the middle segment has a negative slope (negative resistance) Fig 3.A Cellonic Circuit Fig 3b: Phase Space & I-V Characteristics Curve and represents the region in which the Op- Amp is operating linearly. It is this negative resistance region that allows the Op-Amp to oscillate and produce pulses bounded by the positive and negative saturation voltages. For ease of explanation4, we assume that the input signal is a triangular waveform. Here we have dVs/dt = (V0 depending on the slope of the triangular input waveform. Whenever the slope is positive, the Op-Amp is stable and outputs a constant saturation voltage. Thus a silent period is observed i.e. no spike is being produced. On the otherhand, with properly selected circuitparameters whenever the slope of thetriangular waveform is negative, the Op- Amp is unstable. In this region, the output is oscillating. The duration of each pulse issimilar and the number of pulses generated depends on the length of time the slope remains negative. Thus by Controlling the duration of the negative slope, he number of pulses to be produced at the output of the Op-Amp can be controlled. The Cellonic scircuit is robust against noise perturbations - as long as the effective negative slope keeps the Op-Amp unstable, the noise will not have an effect on the pulse generation. The level of tolerance against the noise perturbations is carried out by properselection of circuit parameters in the design. There are also many other families of Cellonics circuits. By using the Principle of Duality, the N-curve families of Cellonics circuits can be derived. In this case, the realization of the circuits can be based on the OP-AMP or devices such as the tunnel diode, etc. The transfer function of a tunneldiode exhibits the N- curve transfer characteristic inherently, which is a dual of the S-curve family. By connecting an inductor and Fig 3d: PN-Curve Cellonics Element A tunnel diode in series, we can produce pulses that are separated by periods of silence. This family of circuits responds to the voltage level of the input signal. As an application example, a square wave signal is used in Fig 3d. In this case, the duration when the input signal is above a certainthreshold voltage determines the duration that the circuit operates in the unstable region and consequently the number of pulses generated. 4 APPLICATIONS TO TELECOMMUNICATIONS Fig 4a: Digital Communication Pathway Functional Diagram The Cellonics technology can be used as a modulation/demodulation technique with the Cellonics Element embedded in the demodulator (Fig 4a). One of the most important features of the Cellonics demodulation technique is its powerful inherent Carrier-rate DecodingTM, which enables one information symbol to be carried in one RF carrier cycle. Convention systems require thousands of cycles to capture one symbol. Cellonics unique Carrier-rate DecodingTM offers throughput at maximum rate. Fig 4b: One symbol Per Cycle To further illustrate the Cellonics inherent Carrier-rate DecodingTM, an FSK- like signal is taken as an example5. As shown in Fig 4b, the information symbols are encoded in this FSK- like signal that is transmitted through the channel. At the receiver, the Cellonics circuit produces different sets of pulses with respect to the different frequencies of the signal. The information symbol can be recovered by simply counting the pulses i.e. f1 produces 2 spikes, f2 produces 3spikes, f3 produces 4 spikes etc. Fig 4c: Comparison with Various Modulation Schemes Fig 4c shows the different conventional modulation/demodulation schemes and the Cellonics approach. In the conventional communication systems, thousands of RF carrier cycles are required to reliably extract the information contained in a carrier signal.This is because the receiver requires time to synchronize with the carrier signal. With the Cellonics technology, information can be decoded in every transmitted cycle. Thus, this breakthrough promises very high-speed data transmission. Besides its application in decoding circuits, the Cellonics technology also offers simplicity in receiver architecture with its attributes of low cost, smallness in size and low power consumption. Its robustness in noisy environment. Fig 4d: 4th Generation GSM Receiver Architecture vs. CellonicsTM Also offers a system that has better performance and receiver sensitivity. Fig 4d shows a conventional super heterodyne receiver which is complex in design and has many practical drawbacks. Some issues that need considerable attention include: device noise inter modulation, local oscillators/mixer isolation, Phase Lock Loop (PLL) switching time and noise immunity. Moreover, these subsystems consume considerable amount of power. A newer technique uses the Super homodyne approach with no IF stage (i.e. zero-IF). But these solutions are difficult to manufacture, have some tricky problems (e.g. DC offset) and still require power hungry subsystems as mentioned earlier. With the Cellonics technology, very simple receiver architecture can be realized without oscillators, phase lock loops etc. This is a paradigm shift in design. Fig 4e: 4th Generation GSM Receiver vs. Cellonics Fig 4e shows a more detailed diagram of the 4thgeneration Super homodyne GSM receiver and the Cellonics receiver. It clearly shows the simplicity of the Cellonics receiver as no oscillators and crystals are required. To improve the spectral efficiency, multi-level. Fig 4f: Other Performance Advantages Modulation scheme is usually employed. Fig 4fcompares a conventional M-ary FSK receiver and a Cellonics receiver. Each increase in the modulation level requires a significant number of circuits to be added in the conventional receiver. For the Cellonics receiver, no additional circuit elements are required due to its inherent multi-level modulation property. This is chieved using different number of spikes per cycle to represent different sets of information symbols (Fig 4g below). Fig 4g: M-ary Receiver FSK vs Cellonics 5 PERFORMANCE OF CELLONICS RECEIVER Fig 5a: Cellonics Receiver Performance 5 a. BER Performance in a Narrowband Communication System An important performance measure of any modulation scheme is its bit-error rate (BER) performance in a noisy channel. Fig 5a shows the numerical simulation results of the Cellonics receiver in theAWGN channel. Also shown in the figure is the theoretical curve of the optimal Binary Phase Shift Keying (BPSK) modulation scheme. From the figure, it is clear that the BE performance of the Cellonics modulation is able to match the theoretical optimal BPSK modulation scheme. This is achieved by using only 4Cellonicselements which are very simple (please refer to Fig 3a and Fig 3d). Figure 5b shows another set of results in the multi-path environment which show that the CellonicsTM Fig 5b: Performance in 2-path and AWGN Channel Receiver has similar performance as the BPSK receiver but with much simpler receiver architecture. Furthermore, inpractical terms, the Cellonics receiver will have less implementation losses when compared to a conventional receiver. b. BER Performance in an Ultra Wideband Fig 5c: Performance in Cellonics UWB Fig 5d: Performance in Cellonics UWB UWB is a new radio system that occupies an ultra wide bandwidth. In UWB signaling, the transmission uses very short impulses of radio energy (less than a few nanoseconds in duration). This results in a spectrum that covers a wide range of radio frequencies. Consequently, the small amount of transmitted energy is spread over a wide frequency range resulting in very small energy per Hertz. It will cause little interference to the existing spectrum users. Typical correlator-based UWB receiver requires thousands of cycles and frames to acquire the signals and average out the noise. The Cellonics technology can be used as a receiver to detect the UWB signals. The BER performance of the Cellonics UWB system has been evaluated in both simulation and experiment. Fig 4c shows the simulated and experimental results. Using the On-Off Keying method, the experimental Cellonics performance curve is less than 1 dB from the theoretical best performance using the correlate approach. However, the Cellonics UWB system has superior throughput and is potentially hundreds to thousands times faster as it uses only one to few frames (e.g. 7frames) to decode one information symbol depending on the power efficiency requirements. Fig 4d shows its performance in a dense in-door multipath environment. The fading margin is only3 dB and indicates that it is suitable for indoor applications such as wireless local area networks. 6 PROOF OF CONCEPT - DEMONSTRATION ON SYSTEMS In the following discussions, the parameters used in the demonstration systems such as the distance of transmission and the data rates are merely for ease of prototyping purposes and are NOT the limitation of the Cellonics technology. a: Narrowband Communication System Fig 6 a: Wireline Cellonics Communication System (5.7 Mbps) Fig 6a shows the block diagram of a proofof concept demonstration system that transmits compact disc music at a data rate of 5.7 Mbps over a wired line. In this system, a CD-ROM player is used as a convenient signal source to provide the required bit stream. The digital data is modulated using a pulse width modulation scheme. These modulated data are then passed through a700-ft telephone wire line. At the receiver, the data is demodulated using the N-shaped Cellonics circuit, which in this case uses only two elements - an inductor in series with a tunnel diode. To recover the digital information, the decision device simply counts the pulses to determine if it is a logic ˜1' or ˜0'. The recovered data is then output to an audio player for real time playback. Note: This demo highlights good long distance performance. b. Narrowband Communication System(Wireless) Fig 6b Wireless Cellonics Communication System Fig 6b shows the block diagram of another demonstration system which is a 26.7 Mbps file transfer system. The system consists of a transmitter and receiver; both sub-systems further comprise three modules: the PC/DSP module, baseband transceiver module and the RF transmit/receive module. The DSP module resides in a personal computer and provides a high-speed data transmission interface with the transmit/receive PC. The DSP transmits a data file residing on the PC serially to the baseband transmitter at a data rate of 26.7 Mbps. The baseband transmitter converts these data from the DSP into FSK-like waveforms. The RF receiver module down converts the received signal using an AM envelope detector. The received waveform is fed into the S-shaped Cellonics chip to recover the data. The recovered data are sent to the DSP storage on the receiver PC. The transmission has no error correction scheme and the off-line BER check has zero error most of the time. The demonstration system shows a high throughput of data transfer and is 3 times faster as compared to a commercial Radio LAN product. Note: This demo highlights better than current wireless LAN (11 Mbps) performance. c. Ultra Wideband Audio System Fig 6c Cellonics UWB Wireless Audio Radio System Fig 6c shows the block diagram of a UWB radio system. This system demonstrates the live transmission of compact disc music using UWB wireless technology. Digital data from two CD-ROM players is tapped at a rate of 11.4 Mbps. This data stream is fed into a UWB pulse generator and transmitted wirelessly. At the receiver end, the signal is detected and then fed to a Cellonics receiver to decode and the original music data is recovered/sent to an audio player for real-time playback. Note: This demo highlights future application and good noise immunity. d. Ultra Wideband Video System Fig 6d Cellonics UWB Wireless Video Radio System Fig 6d shows the block diagram of a second UWB demonstration system that transmits real-time video images at a data rate of 12Mbps wirelessly to a video monitor. In this system, a simple web camera is used as the video capture source. The digital video information is fed into a pulse position modulation processing board (a Field Programmable Gate Array or FPGA board) via a USB connection before being frequency translated to a higher frequency band at a transmitter for sending over the air. The airborne signals are then detected by a UWB receiver and pulse position demodulated back into digital video information for display at a video monitor. In both instances, an ultra simple Cellonics Transmitter and a simple Cellonics receiver are used. The speed of the system is only limited by the Video camera™s USB interface data rate. Note: This demo highlights the ultra simplicity, speed and robust performance of the Cellonics UWB transceiver technology in a popular consumer application. 7 CELLONICS ADVANTAGES The impact of Cellonics is such that it effects a fundamental change in the way digital communications have traditionally been done. As such, many communication devices will benefit from its incredible simplicity, speed and robustness. Devices built with the Cellonics technology will save on chip/PCB real estate, power and implementation time. 1. New Life to Communication Devices The strength of the Cellonics technology lies in its inherent Carrier-rate DecodingTM (i.e. extremely fast decoding rate), multilevel capability (spectral efficiency), simple circuitry, low power consumption and low cost. Some telecommunication application examples in wireless communication are cellular networks(2/3/4 G and beyond), WLAN/ Home networks ,LMDS, broadcasting, military radio, RF identification tags, low cost radar with fine range precision and sensor for automobiles. In wire line communication, some areas where the Cellonics technology is deployable are: high-speed modem cable modem, xDSL), LAN/Home networks, backbone telephony/data networks, power line communications and military applications. Beyond its application in telecommunication, the Cellonics TM technology is also applicable in the electronics circuits such as gated oscillators, delta modulators, sigma-delta modulators and clock multipliers, etc. 1: Savings on Chip/ PCB Real Estate Because of its simplicity, a receiver implemented with Cellonics can save as much as 4 times the chip real estate. (Comparison made with a zero-IF receiver designed with the same 0.8Mm BiCMOS process.) 2: Savings on Power Using the same design and comparison above, it was found that a CellonicsTM-based receiver consumed 3 times less power. This is possible because a Cellonics circuit is built with a few discrete components that are mostly passive and hence consume very little or negligible power. Cellonics returns a high ˜power budget™ back to a communication device. Designers can use this ˜extra™ power to ˜finance™ other powerneedy features in a device such a color screen, GPS receiver, etc. Else, the device will simply end up having a longer battery life. (As in the case of mobile phones) Table 7: a 3: Savings in Implementation Time In a receiver, the Cellonics circuit replaces many traditional subsystems such as the amplifier, mixer, PLL, oscillator, filter, crystal quartz, etc. that are necessary in a common Super heterodyne and Super homodyne design. These parts in these subsystems can be costly, fragile and noisy. Aside from this, the subsystems need great expertise to be put together and fine-tuned. It is also difficult to miniaturize. With the simplicity and robustness of CellonicsTM, implementation time is swift without the sacrifice on performance. 4: Build or Rejuvenate your Products with Cellonics The incredible simplicity, low cost, low power consumption of Cellonics makes it ideal for use in your next generation of feature-rich products that need to be small in size and long on power reserve. Else, the technology is also ideal in giving your current products a new low- cost and power-saving receiver engine. 8 CONCLUSION The Cellonics communication method is one inspired by how biological cells signal. It is a fresh and novel look athow digital signals may be conveyed. In this digital day and age, it is timely; current digital communication designs are mostly derived from old analog signal methods. With the Cellonics method, much of the subsystems in a traditional communication system are not required. Noise-generating and power-consuming systems such as voltage-controlled oscillators, PLLs, mixers, power amplifiers, etc., are eliminated. To a communications engineer, this is unheard off. One just doesn™t build a communication device without an oscillator, mixer, or¦. Such is the revolutionary impact of Cellonics. Engineers will have to reformtheir thinking- that such a simple solution is possible. 9 REFERENCE 1:Cellonics.com 2:future20hottechnologies.com 3:techalone.com
