General Terms
Wireless communication systems, Optical fiber
communication, Subcarrier multiplexing, Wavelength division
multiplexing, Radio-over fiber systems.
Keywords
External optical Modulation, Frequency up-conversion,
remote antenna units, IF based RoF system, RF based RoF
system, HBT (Hetero-junction bipolar transistor).
1. INTRODUCTION
In today’s era of ubiquitous connectivity or “communication
anytime, anywhere and with anything”. The demand to have
broadband capacity wirelessly has put pressure on wireless
communication systems to increase both their transmission
capacity, as well as their coverage [1]. Research on millimeter
waves has gained attention recently. High frequencies in the
range of GHz have more bandwidth, hence their data carrying
capacity are more, but they encounter more losses when they
are transmitted wirelessly hence they cannot be transmitted
long distances whereas the low frequency signals encounters
less losses hence they can travel long distances. At high
frequency associated losses are high. Hence, there is a need
for a waveguide to carry these waves. The medium is nothing
but optical fiber due to the low loss offered by them (0.2
dB/km) in 1550nm band which is much smaller than any other
medium can provide. In order to meet the ever increasing
demand for larger transmission bandwidth. Wireless network
based on radio over-fiber technologies is a very beneficial
solution. It acts as a back-end technology for the
transportation of microwave and millimeter waves [1].
RoF is a well-established technique for the distribution of
wireless communication systems due to the larger bandwidth
offered by optical fiber and the add drop facility offered by
the WDM systems makes it suitable to add and drop any
channels simultaneously during transmission through Optical
add-drop multiplexers (OADMs) [8].RoF makes it possible to
centralize the RF signal processing functions in one shared
location (Central office), and then to use optical fiber to
distribute the RF signals to the remote base stations (BS) from
there they are transmitted wirelessly through the remote
antenna units (RAUs), as shown in figure 1. By doing so,
RAUs are simplified significantly, as they only need to
perform optoelectronic conversion and amplification
functions. The need for increased capacity per unit area leads
to higher frequencies per unit area leads to higher operating
frequencies, smaller radio cells and large no of BS. Therefore,
cost-effective BS development is a key success to the market
[18].
1.1 Architecture of RoF system
RoF systems are classified into three main categories:
1. RFoF (Radio Frequency over Fiber)
2. IFoF (Intermediate Frequency over Fiber)
3. BBoF (Baseband signal over Fiber)
1.1.1 Radio Frequency over Fiber
In RF-over-Fiber architecture, an RF signal (analog
waveform) with high frequency (greater than 10 GHz with
baseband data embedded in it) can be modulated with light
waves.
1.1.2 Intermediate Frequency over Fiber
In IFoF architecture, a data carrying RF signal with
frequency (less than 10 GHz) are modulated with light wave
using either direct or external modulation before transmission
over the optical link. Therefore, before radiation through the
air at the remote base station this signal from IF frequency
needs to be up-converted to RF level before transmitting them
wirelessly through RAUs. IFoF scheme has exhibited a 2dB
better sensitivity than RFoF scheme [1].
1.1.3 Baseband signal over Fiber
In BBoF scheme a baseband signal is modulated with light
wave and transmitted over optical fiber. Then, at the receiver
end this baseband signal is detected and up-converted to RF
level by up-conversion techniques. BBoF scheme exhibits
better sensitivity than an IFoF scheme by 4dB [1].