STOCKHOLM, Sweden, Sept. 2 -- Pirelli will use Stratix GX devices from Altera Corp., a San Jose, Calif., maker of programmable logic devices, for its radio-over-fiber (ROF) technology for 3G networks using the universal mobile telecommunications system standard, the companies announced today. ROF enables the transmission of radio signals directly over optical fiber, and its application in 3G networks allows network operators to deploy base stations more easily and at a lower cost, Pirelli said. ROF technology allows the baseband processing portion and the radio frequency (RF) processing antenna unit (AU) of a 3G base station to communicate over high-speed optical fibers. Before ROF, these two parts had to be physically close to maintain the fidelity of the high-speed communication data. Pirelli's ROF system employs Stratix GX devices in both the baseband and the AU to enable the high-speed link between them. Pirelli is demonstrating its ROF system at the 30th European Conference on Optical Communication (ECOC), to be held Sept. 5-9 in Stockholm, Sweden. For more information, visit: www.pirelli.com/telecomsystems