MAPON: Master Antenna Passive Optical Network for the Distribution of Digital Video Broadband Services in the European ACTS-CRABS Project

The European ACTS-CRABS project addresses theproblem of delivering broadband and interactivedigital video channels over a wireless 40 GHz fixedpoint-to-multipoint cellular network connectingantennas typically placed on the top of office orapartment buildings. An important issue of thisproject is the final distribution of the signal insidethe building itself. The proposed solution is based ona passive optical network (MAPON) designed to deliverthe signal from a Master Antenna to the final usersapartment. This paper presents an overview of theMAPON solution architecture and hardware, togetherwith the results obtained on an installed testbed. Theissues of low-cost design, system bandwidthlimitations, transmitter clipping and power budget areaddressed, together with the proposed solutions. Weexperimentally measured a power budget that wouldallow the distribution to up to 32 users over lengthsof the order of 150 m.