Patent ID: 6937878

Claim:
A mobile communication system employing a plurality of digital optical links, said system comprising: a base station (BS) controller for managing overall control within said mobile communication system, said BS controller coupled to a base transceiver system (BTS) via a first E1 or T1 link; a compact base transceiver system (BTS) controller coupled to said BS controller via a second E1 or T1 link for managing channel capacity of a plurality of compact base transceiver systems (BTSs); and a plurality of optical fiber links coupled to said BTS controller at one end via an optical coupling and the plurality of said compact BTSs at the other end; wherein said plurality of compact base transceiver systems (BTSs) have a plurality of optical transponders arranged in spaced relation with each other along each of said optical fiber links, said optical transponders being operative for receiving, along the respective optical fiber link, an optical signal traveling away from said BTS controller in a forward direction, the forward optical signal to be retransmitted as a down-link signal if at one frequency, and for amplifying, if at another frequency, the received optical signal and transmitting the amplified signal to another compact BTS along said optical fiber link in said forward direction.