Progress in the ACTS FRANS project

One of the aims of the ACTS FRANS (Fibre Radio ATM Network and Services) project was to demonstrate the concept of radio over fibre through a field trial, namely a "real world" delivery of services-video on demand (VOD), high speed internet, visiophony,...-to customers. For this, all the hardware required for the demonstration (millimetre wave electrical and optical components) was developed by the numerous partners involved in the project. The planned demonstration is schematically described, underlying the main building blocks: the ATM interface (622 Mb/s downstream and 40 Mb/s upstream) to the passive optical network (PON), the self-heterodyne optical source which delivers the modulated optical signal carrying the 27.875 GHz TDM signal (622 Mb/s) and 29.875 GHz LO, the remote antenna unit (RAU) which radiates the TDM signal and converts the uplink radio signal into the optical domain (40 Mb/s stream at an intermediate frequency of 615 MHz) and the customer premises equipment (CPE).