Fabry-Pérot optical frequency comb based mm-wave RoF system using pilot-assisted equalizer.

Area of Science:

• Optical Communications
• Wireless Networks
• Signal Processing

Background:

• Millimeter wave (mm-Wave) frequencies offer solutions for mobile network congestion.
• Optical heterodyning is a scalable approach for mm-Wave generation, with potential for on-chip integration.
• Residual phase noise in optical frequency comb (OFC) systems degrades transmission performance.

Purpose of the Study:

• To demonstrate a high-capacity mm-Wave radio-over-fiber (RoF) system using a Fabry-Pérot (FP) laser comb.
• To theoretically analyze and experimentally compensate for phase noise induced by FP laser frequency fluctuations.
• To evaluate the performance of a pilot-based phase equalizer for improving transmission quality.

Main Methods:

• Theoretical analysis of temporal phase perturbation in FP laser combs.
• Estimation and compensation of phase noise using a pilot-based phase equalizer.
• Experimental and simulation-based performance evaluation of the compensation scheme.

Main Results:

• Successful transmission of ten 200 MHz filtered orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (f-OFDM) signal bands (16-quadrature amplitude modulation, QAM) over 10 km fiber.
• Demonstration of 16-QAM single carrier signals with 2 GBd and 8 Gbps data rate, showing resilience to phase noise.
• First commercial Quantum Well FP laser-based optical heterodyning mm-Wave RoF system for both multi-carrier and single-carrier signals.

Conclusions:

• The proposed pilot-based phase equalizer effectively compensates for phase noise in FP laser comb-based mm-Wave RoF systems.
• The system supports high-capacity multi-user transmission, addressing future mobile network demands.
• This work paves the way for practical implementation of advanced mm-Wave communication systems.