Analog receiver for coherent optical analog radio-over-fiber transmission

A receiver for low-cost coherent optical applications is presented. Conceptual simplicity is guaranteed through the use of a monolithic integrated externally modulated laser. Local oscillators and fast photodetectors are provided by the distributed feedback section and electro-absorption modulator of the monolithic laser. The injection-locking feature, which is obtained by virtue of the inline configuration of the receiver, guarantees exact frequency translation during coherent reception and obviates the need for digital signal processing typically employed for the purpose of signal recovery. The proposed receiver is experimentally demonstrated for wired multi-carrier and analog transmission of wireless radio signals. Nyquist-shaped frequency division multiplexing with data rates up to 10 Gb/s and real-time transmission of 64-ary quadrature amplitude modulated narrowband orthogonal frequency division multiplexed radio signals is shown for an optical loss budget of 31 dB.