FIRMWARE · multimode FIber Radio technology for cost-efficientindoor Mm-WAve REmote antenna systems

FIRMWARE aims to develop technologies and systems to exploit unused capacity in multimode optical fiber to transport ultra-broadband 60GHz wireless signals for indoor networks. The project investigates the low cost, energy efficient and flexible deployment of such networks, using predominantly installed worldwide graded index multimode fiber (GI-MMF), as the indoor optical medium, and integrated novel photonic array antennas, as adaptive transceivers. Based on an innovative methodology of theory and experiments, we aim to achieve 3Gb/s wireless coverage over 10m utilizing GI-MMF transmission at 1550nm, with the aid of a single mode fiber (SMF) to GI-MMF coupling scheme, for short area, indoor, optical lengths of the order of 100m or more. The main challenge of this work is to develop technologies and techniques that over come bandwidth limitations inherent in the multi-mode optical medium while still delivering signals that are appropriate for wireless transmission. To achieve this, concepts including photonic-up conversion and wavelength re-use techniques will be explored, and orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM), will be deployed to provide the necessary tolerance to the optical/wireless dispersive channels. Finally, a cost-effective hybrid FTTx/60GHz wireless transmission scheme will be exploited based on a SMF/ indoor GI-MMF topology in order to provide adaptable coverage for future converged wired/wireless scenarios.