Architectural Considerations of Fiber-Radio Millimeter-Wave Wireless Access Systems

The architecture of fiber-radio mm-wave wireless access systems critically depends upon the optical mm-wave generation and transport techniques. Four optical mm-wave generation and transport techniques: 1) optical self-heterodyning, 2) external modulation, 3) up- and downconversion, and 4) optical transceiver, will be assessed. From the technical viewpoints, their advantages and disadvantages are discussed. The economical assessment, focusing on the cost of a base station BS ( ), will suggest that the optical transceiver looks the most promising in the long run, but in the near future, however, the external modulation will be cost-effective. The experimental results of 60 GHz testbeds using the external modulation will support the conclusion.     

Millimetre-wave fibre–wireless transmission systems with reduced effects of fibre chromatic dispersion

This paper describes two techniques for the implementation of millimetre-wave (mm-wave) wireless communication systems incorporating optical fibre distribution networks. Fibre chromatic dispersion can exhibit severe effects on the transportation of mm-wave frequencies over fibre, resulting in greatly reduced post-detection rf powers. Each mm-wave fibre–wireless system demonstrated here incorporates a method for the generation and modulation of an optical mm-wave carrier, which enables the effect of fibre dispersion to be significantly reduced. One set-up is a direct-detection scheme where optical single-sideband (SSB) with carrier modulation is used to overcome fibre dispersion effects. The other system employs a self-heterodyne arrangement in which a dual-frequency optical source generates a low phase-noise mm-wave beat signal. Data transmission is achieved by externally modulating the dual-mode signal and reduced effects of fibre dispersion are observed.     

Frequency sextupling technique using two cascaded dual-electrode Mach–Zehnder modulators interleaved with Gaussian optical band-pass filter

A frequency sextupling technique for the generation of millimeter-wave (mm-wave) is proposed and investigated. The proposed technique is comprised of two cascaded dual-electrode Mach–Zehnder modulators (MZMs), which are interleaved with Gaussian optical band-pass filter (GOBF). The first MZM, biased at minimum transmission, is only used for optical carrier suppression modulation, and the second MZM, biased at maximum transmission, is used for both even-order optical harmonic generation and data signal modulation. The GOBF between two MZMs is used to suppress the high-order optical harmonics beyond the first-order optical harmonics. On the basis of theoretical analysis and simulated demonstrations, it is concluded that with the use of an RF signal at 10 GHz, which carries the data signal and drives the MZMs, an mm-wave signal at 60 GHz can be obtained. The simulation results show that the proposed sextuple leads to a 7 dB improvement in receiver sensitivity in comparison with the modulation technique, i.e. using two cascaded dual-electrode MZMs without GOBF. Furthermore, the eye diagrams show that the quality of generated mm-wave signal is satisfactory. The proposed technique is verified by experiments.     

GaInAs/AlInAs superlattice oscillators for optical to mm-wave conversion

A simple optical to mm-wave conversion device is reported. It is based upon a GaInAs/AlInAs superlattice designed to produce mm-wave generation through the miniband negative conductance. It is driven by a light signal modulated near the oscillator fundamental frequency in order to obtain optical injection locking. The present paper stresses different material and non-linear transport properties necessary to optimise such devices at optical communications wavelengths.     

Optical microwave generation using modified sideband injection synchronization with wide line-width lasers for broadband communications

In future generation space based phased arrays and in pico-cellular broadband mobile communication systems operating at microwave frequencies optical techniques for transport and generation of electrical signals are widely used. In general, there are two main classes of optical transmitting and generating microwave frequencies: (1) methods using direct or external intensity modulation of lasers and (2) heterodyning method using two coherent optical waves. The present paper dwells on the second method. The present paper overcomes the major practical limitations of optical sideband injection locking. Simulation results have been given in support of the analytical result.     

A full-duplex radio-over-fiber system using direct modulation laser to generate optical millimeter-wave and wavelength reuse for uplink connection

In this paper, we present a full-duplex radio-over-fiber system incorporating both optical millimeter-wave (mm-wave) generation and wavelength reuse for uplink connection. The optical double sidebands (DSB) signal is generated by using only one inexpensive broadband direct modulation laser (DML), to which a mixing RF signal is applied. An optical interleaver is then used to separate the first-order optical sidebands from the optical carrier of optical DSB signal. The separated first-order optical sidebands are beat to generate mm-wave signal that has double the frequency of the RF drive signal, while the separated optical carrier is reused as light source to remodulate uplink signal. Both detailed theoretical analysis and experiments to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed system are presented. Experiment result shows that the bidirectional 2.5 Gb/s data can be successfully transmitted over 40 km standard single-mode fiber (SSMF) with less than 2 dB power penalty.     

Using dual-mode self-locked semiconductor laser for optical millimeter-wave application

In this study, an optical millimeter-wave (mm-wave) generator is proposed and experimentally demonstrated by using a self-injected Fabry-Perot laser diode (FP-LD), having mode spacing of 1.11 nm, for dual-mode beating in 140 GHz band (terahertz band). The created dual-wavelength also can be also modulated at 1.25, 2.5, and 10 Gb/s with on-off keying (OOK) modulation format by external optical modulator, respectively, in 20 km fiber transmission. Moreover, the dual-mode laser can be selected in difference wave-lengths by tuning the optical filter inside cavity for the future WDM applications.     

The transmission performance of the single sideband optical millimeter-wave with BPSK signal in the duplex radio-over-fiber link

This paper has investigated the transmission performance of the single sideband (SSB) optical millimeter (mm)-wave with signal carried by the sideband in BPSK format in duplex radio-over-fiber (RoF) system theoretically and numerically. The SSB optical mm-wave signal is generated by a LiNbO₃ Mach–Zehnder modulator and there exists an optimal modulation index to generate the SSB optical mm-wave with a maximal RF photocurrent. The SSB optical mm-wave is much suitable for the duplex ROF link with the uplink lightwave recovered from the downlink because the optical carrier carries no signal. In such a duplex RoF link, although there are the spurs on the optical carrier, they have little influence on the downlink and the uplink signal even if the modulation index is large.     

The influence of fiber dispersion on the code form of the optical mm-wave signal generated by single sideband intensity-modulation

We have theoretically investigated the transmission performance of the optical mm-wave generation by using an external modulator based on single sideband (SSB) intensity modulation. Though the SSB millimeter (mm)-wave can immune the fading effect, the baseband signals with a high bit rate are degraded greatly after transmission along fiber. The main reason is that the fiber dispersion causes the time shift of the code edges; therefore the maximum transmission distance of the baseband signals is limited. The experimental and simulation results agree well with our theoretical analysis. We also propose a novel scheme to extend the transmission distance. In this novel scheme, the data signals are modulated only onto one of the two optical carriers; hence the shift of the code edges in the down-converted signals after transmission is eliminated.     

Photonic aided vector millimeter-wave signal generation without digital-to-analog converter

A novel scheme of photonic aided vector millimeter-wave(mm-wave)signal generation without a digital-to-analog converter(DAC)is proposed.Based on our scheme,a 20 Gb/s 4-ary quadrature amplitude modulation(4-QAM)mm-wave signal is generated without using a DAC.The experiment results demonstrate that the bit error rate(BER)of 20 Gb/s 4-QAM mmwave signal can reach below the hard-decision forward-error-correction threshold after a delivery over 1 m wireless distance.Because the DAC is not required,it can reduce the system cost.Besides,by using photonic technology,the system is easily integrated to create large-scale production and application in high-speed optical communication.     

Generation of millimeter-wave sub-carrier optical pulse by using a Fabry-Perot interferometer

A novel scheme is proposed to transform a Gaussian optical pulse to a millimeter-wave (mm-wave) frequency modulation pulse by using a Fabry-Perot interferometer (FPI) for radio-over-fiber (ROF) system.It is shown that modulation frequency of mm-wave is determined by the optical path of the Fabry-Perot (F-P) cavity, and amplitude decay time and energy transfer efficiency are related to the reflectivity of the F-P cavity mirror. The effect of pulse train extension on inter-symbol interference is also discussed.     

A novel optical mm-wave generation scheme based on three parallel Mach-Zehnder modulators

We propose a novel optical mm-wave generation scheme based on three parallel Mach-Zehnder modulators (MZMs) for the first time. First, the scheme is investigated theoretically, which suggests that it can be used for sextupling, 12-tupling, and 18-tupling mm-wave generation. Then simulation results are given, 60 GHz mm-wave is generated from 5 GHz, or 10 GHz RF oscillator based on frequency 12-tupling or sextupling, and 90 GHz mm-wave is generated from 5 GHz RF oscillator based on frequency 18-tupling. The optical sideband suppression ratio (OSSR) and the radio frequency spurious suppression ratio (RFSSR) are analyzed by simulation, in which several non-ideal factors are taken into consideration. Results indicate that all the three mm-wave generation methods are practical and very good performance can be obtained when the extinction ratio of the MZM is 30 dB, even if the extinction ratio of the MZM is 20 dB, the performance is still good, especially for the sextupling mm-wave generation method, whose performance is excellent and insensitive to the extinction ratio of MZM, the non-ideal RF driving voltage and the non-ideal DC bias. At last, we set up a RoF system by simulation to verify the transmission performance of the scheme. The BER performance and eye diagrams are given.     

Influence of the modulation index of Mach-Zehnder modulator on RoF link with ASK millimeter-wave signal

In this paper, the influence of the modulation index of LiNbO₃ Mach-Zehnder modulator on the radio over fiber (RoF) link based on single sideband (SSB) optical millimeter (mm)-wave with ASK signal is theoretically and numerically investigated. Our investigation shows that there exists an optimal modulation index to generate the SSB optical mm-wave with a maximal RF photocurrent. Although the fiber dispersion distorts the code form and degrades the performance of the RF signal demodulated from the SSB optical mm-wave after fiber transmission, it does not cause the closure of the eye diagram. However, the influence of the fiber dispersion becomes more obvious as the modulation index increases. For the duplex RoF link with the optical carrier of the uplink recovered from the downlink, a larger modulation index of the downlink causes a worse crosstalk from the downlink to the uplink.     

A Photonic mm-Wave Frequency Sextupler Using an Integrated Mach–Zehnder Modulator with Three Arms

Abstract

A novel photonic mm-wave frequency sextupling scheme based on an integrated Mach–Zehnder modulator with three arms is proposed in this article. Without any optical filter, a high-quality frequency sextupling mm-wave signal can be generated. Compared with mm-wave generation schemes based on traditional two-arm Mach–Zehnder modulators, the proposed scheme does not need DC bias and a complex electrical bias control circuit. Some non-ideal factors are taken into consideration to verify its performance, which proves that a slight deviation of the ideal values does not cause great degradation of the performance of the mm-wave generation scheme.     

一种改进的双边带调制产生光毫米波的方案

提出了应用于光纤无线通信系统中一种改进的双边带调制产生光毫米波方案。在中心站采用强度调制将射频信号调制到光载波上产生一个双边带信号,滤掉中心载波后,利用光交叉复用器把双边带信号的上下边带模分开,将数据速率为2.5Gbit/s的基带信号调制到下边带模后,再与未调信号耦合后产生光毫米波,然后通过单模光纤传输至基站,在基站经过光电转换后产生电毫米波信号。从理论上对该毫米波的色散特性进行了分析,发现毫米波的接收功率不会周期的衰减。同时通过实验研究表明,下行链路信号通过光纤能传输50km而不需要色散补偿,功率代价小于1dBm。因此,该方法产生的光毫米波能有效克服光纤色散引起的信号时延而导致的基带信号退化,适合于远距离传输。     

60 GHz millimeter-wave generator based on a frequency-quadrupling feed-forward modulation technique

We propose and analyze a prototype of a 60 GHz millimeter-wave (mm-wave) generator. In the scheme, two lasers with a 70 GHz frequency interval serve as sources. Then a frequency-quadrupling feed-forward modulation technique is employed to generate two phase correlated sidebands with a 60 GHz interval. The desired sidebands can be selected by using standard optical interleavers. In our work, a 60 GHz mm-wave signal free of phase noise can be achieved. The employed technique can also be extended to frequency 8-tupling.     

Optical demultiplexing of millimeter-wave subcarriers for wireless channel distribution employing dual wavelength FBGs

An optical mm-wave demultiplexer is presented. Double sideband modulation with suppressed optical carrier and filtering properties of dual overwritten fiber Bragg gratings are the fundamentals for optical demultiplexing of mm-wave radio-on-fiber signals: using a single optical carrier, Millimeter-wave signals of 20 and 40 GHz frequencies carrying independent data are created, transmitted over fiber, demultiplexed and wireless distributed to be detected and data recovered in a mobile unit. Double sideband modulation with suppressed optical carrier yields no power penalty due to chromatic dispersion, while the filtering properties of the dual overwritten fiber Bragg gratings allow less than −40 dB electrical power interchannel leakage. Independent 2.5 Gb/s On-Off-keyed data have been successfully transmitted through the 20 and 40 GHz channels.     

A novel frequency sextupling scheme for optical mm-wave generation utilizing an integrated dual-parallel Mach-Zehnder modulator

A novel scheme is proposed for frequency sextupling mm-wave generation based on a laser and an integrated dual-parallel Mach-Zehnder modulator (MZM) without optical filter. Theoretical analysis is presented to suppress the undesired optical sidebands for the high quality generation of frequency sextupling mm-wave signal. The performance of the proposed scheme is evaluated by simulations. Utilizing the integrated MZM consisted of two sub-MZMs with extinction ratio of 30 dB, the optical sideband suppression ratio (OSSR) is as high as 29.9 dB and the radio frequency spurious suppression ratio (RFSSR) exceeds 24 dB without any optical or electrical filter. The impact of the nonideal RF driven voltage and phase difference of RF driven signal applied to two sub-MZMs of the integrated MZM on OSSR and RFSSR is discussed and analyzed. After transmission over fiber, the generated optical mm-wave signal demonstrates good performance. Furthermore, the performance of two cases for the proposed scheme is also compared.     

Novel 60 GHz RoF system with optical single sideband mm-wave signal generation and wavelength reuse for uplink connection

In order to improve RF frequency to achieve higher bandwidth and larger capacity, we propose a novel scheme to generate optical single sideband (SSB) millimeter-wave, in which frequency doubling of local radio frequency (RF) is obtained by using one integrated Mach–Zehnder modulator (MZM), and we theoretically investigate the generating principle of SSB. The optical SSB modulation scheme is employed to generate 60 GHz optical mm-wave and the 2.5 Gb/s baseband signal is simultaneously up-converted at the central station (CS) for downlink transmission, and the optical carrier is reused for uplink connection at the base station (BS). The full-duplex 2.5 Gb/s data are successfully transmitted over 40 km standard single-mode fiber (SMF-28) for both uplink connection and downlink connection with less than 2-dB power penalty. Results show the novel 60 GHz RoF system with optical SSB mm-wave signal generation using optical frequency doubling is feasible and we can obtain simple cost-efficient configuration and good performance over long-distance transmission.     

A full-duplex radio-over-fiber system based on a novel double-sideband modulation and frequency quadrupling

We propose a novel radio-over-fiber system based on double-sideband (DSB) modulation and frequency quadrupling to reduce the system cost both at central office (CO) and base station (BS). In this system, by properly biasing the intensity modulator, the repetitive frequency of the optical millimeter-wave (mm-wave) is four times frequency of the local oscillator (LO) signal. Additionally, due to the single-sideband of the mm-wave carrying base data signal, our theoretical simulation shows that the generated mm-wave can be immunized the fading effect and the walk-off of signals.