Abstract: A method and system to connect remote antennae and/or remote cellular sectors/sites to cellular base stations. The method and system described herein uses bi-directional optical wireless links, which transfer the information between the base station and the remote site, and vice versa, by single optical signal or several optical signals of different wavelengths. This method and system make it possible to place the antennae remote from the base station.

Abstract: A method for transferring information within a cellular communications network (20), consisting of transmitting an optical carrier from a first network-element (26A) of the network, modulating the optical carrier (57, 59) with the information, and detecting the modulated optical carrier in an avalanche photo-diode (APD) (150) in a second network-element (24A) of the network so as to recover the information. The method includes altering a gain of the APD responsive to a level of the optical carrier so as to prevent saturation of the APD. Other methods and apparatus are also provided for transferring the information via the optical carrier, and also for using the information transferred.