Project description
Broadband for all
Paving the Optical Future with Affordable Lightning-fast Links
Main Objectives:
The POF-ALL project (“Paving the Optical Future with Affordable Lightning-fast Links”) shall develop a technology to allow delivery of 100+ Mbit/s symmetrically to residential users at costs far lower than existing alternatives, thanks to the use of Plastic Optical Fiber (POF). The solution will be targeted at the edge network which, due to its capillarity, is the most expensive part of the access network; and it will be tailored to large residential buildings, which are most common in European cities.
New telecom operators are struggling to deploy glass fiber in the edge networks, despite major installation challenges. POF-ALL shall prove that POF can radically ease installation difficulties and reduce costs while providing ample bandwidth, making it the ideal alternative for edge networks.
The technical goal is to build systems based on large core POF, operating at 100+ Mbit/s symmetrically over distances of 200+ meters. The use of large core POF greatly eases installation with respect to standard glass optical fiber (GOF), but poses physical transmission impairments (due to the higher attenuation and dispersion of POF with respect to GOF) that the project will deal with by optimizing components, devices, transmission and protocol used.
POF-ALL will also gauge market’s potential and assess customers’ requirement to ensure that the outcome will be an economically viable and cost-effective solution which matches real user’s requirements. An appraisal of the project’s economic impact at EU level will be carried out, including an evaluation of the advantages of a low-cost solution for edge access networks and its impact in accelerating the deployment of an infrastructure capable of making EU’s broadband-for-all policy as fast and cost effective as possible.
A constant work of information and dissemination will be carried out on the objectives of this project in order to attract interest, to share results within the EU and to increase knowledge and accelerate adoption of POF-ALL’s technical achievements.
Technical Approach
In order to reach its objectives, the project is structured over the following WPs:
• WP1 – Advanced transmission techniques for 100 Mbit/s over long distances (300+ m)
• WP2 – Module conception and transmission experiments of high speed data (1 Gbit/s and more) over intermediate distances (100+ m)
• WP3 – Component support
• WP4 – Fiber support
• WP5 – Demonstration and Test-beds
• WP6 – Economic impact, Dissemination
• WP7 – Management
Objective: POF-ALL aims at offering a low-cost solution apt to future broadband (BB) networks, focusing on the access network part reaching out to the end user - the so-called edge network. This solution shall prove that Polymer Optical Fibre (POF) is an enabling technology that may make ¿Broadband for All¿ (BB4All) possible and affordable.
Relevance: EU has BB4All policy, whose accomplishment is today at risk. In an effort to reduce Capex/Opex, incumbent telecom operators are pushing xDSL as their only BB solution. Though VDSL allows up to 54Mbps (down), the fast-growing spread of peer-to-peer, HDTV-on-demand etc. shall require higher (and symmetrical) bandwidths. In Japan and Korea, FTTH is taking momentum, delivering today 100+ Mbps. Major parts of Europe are lagging behind, despite the advantages that BB4All would carry: a whole new information-driven economy may blossom, like it happened with mobile communication. Instead, Europe looks doomed to be technologically colonized by American and Japanese companies - again.POF-ALL shall develop a technology that allows delivery of 100+ Mbit/s symmetrically to residential users, at costs far lower than existing alternatives. The solution shall be targeted at the edge network which, due to its capillarity, is the most expensive part of the access network.
Project approach: New telecom operators are struggling to deploy glass fiber edge networks, despite major installation challenges. POF-ALL shall prove that POF can radically ease these installation difficulties and costs, while still providing ample bandwidth, making it the ideal candidate for edge networks.The technical goal is to build a POF-based system, operating at 100+ Mbit/s symmetrically over distances of 200+ meters, augmented with low-cost optical techniques for service multiplexing. To this end, a careful optimization will be carried out of each system level (components, devices, modulation) and tested in a real life environment.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- engineering and technology materials engineering fibers
- natural sciences chemical sciences polymer sciences
- engineering and technology materials engineering amorphous solids
- natural sciences physical sciences optics fibre optics
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Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
FP6-2004-IST-4
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Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Coordinator
10138 Torino
Italy
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.