Improvements In the quality of the delivered NTSC signal In CATV systems may be obtained by the application of fiber backbone technology.
These signal Improvements will be the result of decreased cascades of traditional cable television amplifiers following the fiber node. These Improvements are measurable In terms of carrier-to-noise ratio, and lntermodulatlon products.
The resulting Improvement In system overhead may be exchanged for additional bandwidth, for Increased system reach, or for Improved quality of the delivered signal.
This paper presents the evaluation we performed for one of our existing systems. We show the Improvements In performance which are obtained with fiber backbone. We also show how the same system can be upgraded from 270 MHz to 550 MHz, without changing trunk cable, trunk locations, or using microwave hubs. The 270.550 MHz upgrade example focuses on the exchange of performance for additional bandwidth.