W-band RoF polarization multiplexing system supports 1048576 QAM with delta-sigma modulation

We propose and experimentally verify a photonics-aided W-band millimeter wave (MMW) radio-over-fiber (RoF) polarization-multiplexed envelope detection system for high-order quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) signals. To solve the problem of low spectral efficiency of common public radio interface (CPRI) and severe distortion of high-order QAM of envelope detection, quantization noise suppressed delta-sigma modulation (DSM) is introduced into the system. The experimental results show that the system can transmit 131072 QAM signals when meeting the error vector magnitude (EVM) requirements of 5G new radio (NR), and transmit 1048576 QAM signals when meeting the soft decision threshold (SD@20%).