Providing residential in-building coverage solution is a costly effort involving a massive macro layer tower deployment. The most cost effective way is to provide the cellular signal directly into the subscriber’s home via the FTTH infrastructure reaching inside the home.

Clariton Networks developed a unique solution for improving in-building cellular coverage using FTTH infrastructure. A native cellular signal is sent through the PON network to the subscriber’s home. Coverage is achieved through Cellular Access Points (PINDU), a simple inexpensive device connected to the FTTH home equipment. Clariton believes that utilizing the FTTH infrastructure is the most cost effective means of providing residential in building wireless services.

Architecture

A typical FTTH network is PON based. Data and video is sent from the central office (CO) through an Optical Line Termination (OLT) and distributed to the subscriber’s homes. At the home an Optical Network Unit (ONU) converts the data from the optical carrier signal to other media such as video and Ethernet. There are separate wave lengths (λ) to carry information to and from the subscribers. Some systems also use dedicated wave length for video transmissions.

OptoCell acts as a wide area Distributed Antenna System (DAS) over FTTH. Wireless RF signals from a cellular BTS are fed, through Clariton Network equipment into the OLT in the CO. The Clariton equipment shift the RF signals in frequency (so that they do not interfere with other media transmissions) convert them into an optical signal and send these signals through the PON to the homes. At the home a Cellular Access Point (or embedded IC) retransmits the original cellular signal into the air. On the return path, cellular signals from the handsets are received by the Cellular Access Point and sent over the PON on top of the digital data wave length.

All existing cell phones can be used with the system as there is no modification to the original signal generated by the cellular equipment. The system supports multiple technologies i.e. GSM, UMTS, CDMA and is forward compatible for future cellular protocol developments.