Millimeter-wave radio over fiber optical upconversion techniques relying on link nonlinearity

Abstract

A study of advanced upconversion techniques used in Radio Over Fiber (ROF) is provided. With the huge increase in both the number of wireless communication subscribers and the bandwidth required per customer, migrating to higher frequencies i.e. from lower radio frequency to millimeter wave carriers is an essential solution. However, due to the short propagation range of millimeter waves, a large number of radio access points are required for providing reliable coverage, which would increase the infrastructure costs. Hence, the transmission of RF signals between the central (or control) points and radio access points (or remote antenna units) using optical fibers is one of the major access network solutions that have been proposed for future high-bandwidth wireless communication systems. In this paper we introduce the basics of Radio Over Fiber communication including optical modulation, the optical channel and the optical detection techniques. Then we survey the family of advanced optical upconversion techniques that exploit the non-linearity of the ROF link. Specifically, we describe how optical upconversion can be achieved by exploiting the Mach Zhender Modulator’s (MZM’s) non-linearity, wavelength conversion techniques or the photo-detector’s non-linearity. The wavelength conversion techniques rely on the non-linearities present in the fiber, in the optical amplifier or in the Electro-Absorption Modulator (EAM).

More information

Identifiers

ORCID for Mohammed El-Hajjar: orcid.org/0000-0002-7987-1401

ORCID for Lajos Hanzo: orcid.org/0000-0002-2636-5214

Catalogue record

Export record

Altmetrics