Passive Optical Network for the distribution of digital video broadband services in the European ACTS-CRABS Project

The European ACTS-CRABS project addresses the problem of delivering broadband and interactive digital video channels over a wireless 40 GHz fixed point-to-multipoint cellular network connecting antennas typically placed on the top of office or apartment buildings. An important issue of this project is the final distribution of the signal inside the building itself. The proposed solution is based on a passive optical network (MAPON) designed to deliver the signal from a Master Antenna to the final users apartment. This paper presents an overview of the MAPON solution architecture and hardware, together with the results obtained on an installed testbed. The issues of low-cost design, system bandwidth limitations, transmitter clipping and power budget are addressed, together with the proposed solutions. We experimentally measured a power budget that would allow the distribution to up to 32 users over lengths of the order of 150 m.