HDWDM upgrade of CATV fibre-coax networks for broadband interactive services

To introduce broadband interactive services in a fibre-coax CATV network with high splitting ratio, a HDWDM upgrading strategy in combination with conventional TDMA (or SCMA) techniques is presented. It features flexible network reconfiguration via wavelength reassignment at the optical network units. Key system item is a novel cost-effective bi-directional erbium-doped fibre (/planar waveguide) amplifier handling simultaneously a high-grade analogue CATV downstream signal and multiwavelength interactive signals in a single fibre-coax network.