FRANS: Fibre radio ATM network and services

• Forschungsstelle: EU FRP
• Projektnummer: 95.0082-1
• Projekttitel Englisch: FRANS: Fibre radio ATM network and services

Schlüsselwörter (Englisch)

Fibre/mm-wave radio system; wireless access to ATM; ATM-PON; CDMA return link

Alternative Projektnummern (Englisch)

EU project number: AC083

Forschungsprogramme (Englisch)

EU-programme: 4. Frame Research Programme - 1.2 Communications technologies

Kurzbeschreibung (Englisch)

See abstract

Partner und Internationale Organisationen (Englisch)

Alcatel SEL, CNET, HTL Chur, Univ. of Aveiro, LETI Grenoble

Abstract (Englisch)

The FRANS project explores the possibilities and capabilities of a fibre-supported wireless final drop to provide rapid and flexible deployment of broadband interactive services. The domination of the core network by fibre, and the continuing push of fibre towards the customer, opens up the realistic prospect of fibre penetrating to the curb or to the building in the near future. The specific objectives of FRANS are to develop further and merge two existing technologies, a fibre/mm-wave radio system developed in RACE II and an existing ATM-PON, into a single system that will allow for the demonstration of fibre-supported radio delivery of bidirectional broadband services.
Several field trials are proposed that explore deployment options appropriate to providing services to the customer premises, with formats encompassing 622 Mb/s ATM radio down-link with a 40 Mb/s aggregate TDMA return link, and a 155 Mb/s ATM down-link with a 2 Mb/s CDMA return link. The specific task of CTh (Institut für Kommunikationstechnik, ETH Zürich) is to design and establish a CDMA system in the return link. The activities are coordinated with HTL Chur. While the activities at the ETH restrict to the establishment of a CDMA testbed, other partners are going to provide the equipment for the CDMA radio link in the field trial. The integration of a part of the overall CDMA radio system has been completed in our lab.
The testbed implementation of CTL features a two-stage RAKE receiver for joint data detection and channel parameter estimation. This equipment will enable us to demonstrate the excellent performance of advanced receiver structures based on sophisticated algorithms by means of a scaled-down and programmable version of a future ASIC-based system. The down-scaling as well in the data rate as in the number of admissible simultaneous users and the number of stages had to be done with regard to the restricted signal processing power of programmable digital signal processors. The testbed consists basically of two identical DS-CDMA transmitters and one base-station receiver for the demodulation of the two users' signals. The transmission takes place in the ISM frequency band at 2.4-2.4835 GHz where 10 different RF channels can be utilized. The data rate can be varied between 0.25 kb/s and 1 Mb/s. The modulated data signals in BPSK format are spread with one out of 256 possible programmable PN sequences with a sequence length up to 1023. In the base station receiver the incoming signals are downconverted to an intermediate frequency of 200 MHz. The IF signal is then amplified and quadrature-demodulated. The I- and Q-outputs are splitted and connected to two RAKE receivers that include two A/D converters and two code-correlators for each receiver. The correlator outputs are fed via a DSP interface to a multi-DSP board on which the algorithms for the data detection and channel parameter estimation are implemented in software. This approach allows for easy modifications of the algorithms for adaptation to different transmission characteristics.

Datenbankreferenzen (Englisch)

Swiss Database: Euro-DB of the
State Secretariat for Education and Research
Hallwylstrasse 4
CH-3003 Berne, Switzerland
Tel. [phone]
Swiss Project-Number: 95.0082-1