Simplified radio-over-fiber transport systems with a low-cost multiband light source

In this Letter, low-cost radio-over-fiber (ROF) transport systems are proposed and experimentally demonstrated. By utilizing a laser diode (LD) and a local oscillator (LO) to generate coherent multiband optical carriers, as well as a self-composed wavelength selector to separate every two carriers for different ROF transport systems, no any other dedicated LD or electrical frequency upconverting circuit/process is needed in the central station (CS). Compared with current ROF systems, the required numbers of LDs, LOs, and mixers in a CS are significantly reduced. Reducing the number of components not only can simplify the network structure but can also reduce the volume and complexity of the relative logistics. To demonstrate the practice of the proposed ROF transport systems, clear eye diagrams and error-free transmission performance are experimentally presented.