POF-PLUS · Plastic Optical Fibre for Pervasive Low-cost Ultra-high capacity Systems

POF-PLUS will develop new components, modify fibre assemblies and optimise transmission techniques to enable high speed (multiple Gbps) optical links based on standard large-core Plastic Optical Fibre (POF) which will take full advantage of the intrinsic low cost and extreme ease of installation of POF based systems to aid both wired and wireless service delivery to end users in next generation networks (NGN). To this end, POF-PLUS will address the following specific tasks:<br/>•\toptimization of photonic components for multi Gbps POF transmitters and receivers, improving their linearity, bandwidth, resilience and reliability<br/>•\tdevelopment of PCB-based laser and photodiode arrays suitable for parallel optic solutions using POF<br/>•\tdevelopment of new simplex duplex and ribbon POF cable assemblies<br/>•\tdevelopment of extremely user-friendly POF connection interfaces and cabling solutions to ensure low installation costs and a viable self-install solution<br/>•\tdevelopment and realization of system prototypes at multiple Gbps based on the new optical components and advanced modulation formats and demonstrating the viability of radio-over-POF transport of wireless services<br/><br/>The main target applications envisioned for POF-PLUS outcomes are:<br/>•\tnext generation high-speed home networking solutions (wirebound and wireless) with the main focus on 1Gbps solutions;<br/>•\tlow-cost optical interconnects in large data centres and storage area networks, where the main focus is on multi-Gbps solutions.<br/><br/>POF's key advantages versus other cabled solutions are its ease of connection and termination, very small cable diameter, low weight and complete immunity to electromagnetic emission making it an ideal solution for those applications where link integrity and extreme ease of use is paramount.