Fiber-wireless (FiWi) access network: Performance evaluation and scalability analysis of the physical layer

The fiber-wireless (FiWi) access network is a prestigious architecture for next generation (NG) access network. NG access networks are proposed to provide high data rate, broadband multiple services, scalable bandwidth, and flexible communication for manifold wireless end-users (WEUs). In this paper, the FiWi access network is designed based on a wavelengths division multiplexing/time division multiplexing passive optical network (WDM/TDM PON) at the optical backhaul with data rate of 2.5 Gb/s and wireless fidelity-worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiFi–WiMAX) technologies at the wireless front-end along a 50 m–5 km wireless links with data rate of 54–30 Mb/s, respectively. The performance of the optical backhaul and the wireless front-end, in the proposed FiWi access network, has been evaluated in terms of bit error rate (BER), error vector magnitude (EVM), and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the physical (PHY) layer. The scalability of the optical backhaul based on maximum split ratio of 1/32 for each wavelength channel and a fiber length of 24 km from the central office (CO) to the access point (AP) is analyzed with bit error rate (BER) of 10⁻⁹.