All-optical subcarrier demodulation in upstream link of millimeter-wave radio over fiber system

A means to achieve all-optical broadband demodulation of subcarrier back into digital data in an upstream link of a millimeter-wave radio over fiber (RoF) system is proposed and demonstrated experimentally. In the central station, the subcarrier from the base station of RoF system can be demodulated in the optical domain directly, without any millimeter-wave electronic device. Using this approach, the rf power degradation can be avoided even when the base stations in systems employ the conventional simple double-sideband modulation. Therefore, an inexpensive and simple configuration of the uplink for broadband signal receiving can be realized.