Patent ID: 7565080

Claim:
A system for integrating a fiber optic fixed access network and a fiber optic radio access network, wherein a radio base station is divided into a main unit and a plurality of radio units, said main unit comprising a digital baseband component and a digital intermediate frequency processing unit, and the radio units comprising only radio-related components of the base station, the main unit being located remotely from the radio units, said system comprising: a plurality of radio units for transmitting and receiving radio unit communications with a plurality of mobile units; a first passive wavelength multiplexer for transmitting and receiving the radio unit communications with the radio units and fixed access communications with a plurality of fixed access subscribers, wherein the first passive wavelength multiplexer is connected to each of the radio units and to each of the fixed access subscribers using fiber optic connections, wherein each of the radio units transmits and receives the radio unit communications with the first passive wavelength multiplexer using a wavelength that is the same for each of the radio units, and wherein the first passive wavelength multiplexer converts the radio unit communications with each of the radio units into wavelengths that are different for each of the radio units and different from that used to transmit and receive the fixed access communications with the fixed access subscribers prior to passively multiplexing the radio unit communications and the fixed access communications onto a fiber optic communications link; a second passive wavelength multiplexer connected to the first multiplexer through the fiber optic communications link, wherein the radio unit communications and the fixed access communications are transmitted and received together between the first passive wavelength multiplexer and the second passive wavelength multiplexer through the fiber optic fixed access network using the different wavelengths; and at least one main unit, connected to the second passive wavelength multiplexer, for transmitting and receiving the radio unit communications with the second passive wavelength multiplexer and with a radio network.