The FUTON Prototype: Proof of Concept for Coordinated Multi-Point in Conjunction with a Novel Integrated Wireless/Optical Architecture

The growing relevance of wireless communications has been driving the research and development to enable cost-efficient support of very high data rates to be delivered to a large number of users. The high bandwidth targets for future networks are reflected in the ITU's call for IMT-Advanced. As interference poses the main limitation in today's networks, cooperative signal processing (often referred to as coordinated multi-point, CoMP) is seen as a key enabler to achieve these targets. However, cooperation among base stations in traditional cellular infrastructures is problematic because interconnections (referred to as backhaul) are often very limited in capacity and investigations on more flexible and cost-efficient future architectures are being undertaken. A promising concept was proposed in the European research project FUTON. It is based on the use of radio-over-fiber (RoF) technology to create a distributed antenna system (DAS) that is capable of supporting the high requirements of future wireless networks. Currently, a prototype FUTON system is being built as a proof of concept. In this contribution, we describe the FUTON architecture and give insights into the demonstration that is being prepared. Results from trials with the planned setup will follow.