Abstract

Towards relieving the bandwidth limitations in 5G mobile fronthaul networks, a Fiber Wireless (FiWi) small cell architecture is presented, relying on spectrally efficient analog transport on intermediate frequency over fiber (IFoF) and a millimeter wave (mmWave) phased array antenna (PAA) interfaced with a low-loss optical add/drop multiplexer (OADM) on Si₃N₄/SiO₂ TriPleX platform with 5 dB fiber-to-fiber losses. Specifically, four 1 Gb/s FiWi links, each carrying a 250 MBd 16-QAM signal on 5.8 GHz IFoF, are wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) and transported across a 10 km Single Mode Fiber (SMF), before being demultiplexed into the constituent channels in the OADM device and subsequently wirelessly transmitted by the PAA over a 1 m-long V-band link with 90° degree beamsteering capability. Featuring 4x 1Gb/s user rate with beamsteering to meet the respective 5G key performance indicator (KPI) for the peak user rate and an EVM within the acceptable 3GPP limit of 12.5%, the current work forms the first centralized FiWi point-to-multipoint small cell architecture with efficient transport scheme on IFoF and ubiquitous 360°-degree coverage for emerging 5G mmWave networks.

Analog fiber-wireless downlink transmission of IFoF/mmWave over in-field deployed legacy PON infrastructure for 5G fronthauling

K. Kanta, A. Pagano, E. Ruggeri, M. Agus, I. Stratakos, R. Mercinelli, C. Vagionas, P. Toumasis, G. Kalfas, G. Giannoulis, A. Miliou, G. Lentaris, D. Apostolopoulos, N. Pleros, D. Soudris, and H. Avramopoulos
J. Opt. Commun. Netw. 12(10) D57-D65 (2020)

4 × 4 MIMO architecture supporting IFoF-based analog indoor distributed antenna system for 5G mobile communications

Joonyoung Kim, Minkyu Sung, Eon-Sang Kim, Seung-Hyun Cho, and Jong Hyun Lee
Opt. Express 26(22) 28216-28227 (2018)

Full-duplex transmission of multi-Gb/s subcarrier multiplexing and 5G NR signals in 39 GHz band over fiber and space

Dong-Nhat Nguyen, Luis Vallejo, Vincenc Almenar, Beatriz Ortega, Pham Tien Dat, Son Thai Le, Jan Bohata, and Stanislav Zvanovec
Appl. Opt. 61(5) 1183-1193 (2022)

Multiple beam-steering for 5G multi-user MIMO mobile fronthaul based on IFoF and RoF transmission

Kosuke Nishimura, Hsuan-Yun Kao, Shota Ishimura, Kazuki Tanaka, and Ryo Inohara
Opt. Continuum 1(5) 1165-1175 (2022)

10.51-Tbit/s multi-channel IF-over-fiber transmission with SDM/WDM/SCM for beyond-5G mobile fronthaul accommodating ultra-high-density antennas

Shinji Nimura, Kazuki Tanaka, Shota Ishimura, Kosuke Nishimura, Ryo Inohara, Takehiro Tsuritani, and Masatoshi Suzuki
J. Opt. Commun. Netw. 15(8) C263-C270 (2023)