A comprehensive study on radio over fiber systems: present evaluations and future challenges

Abstract

In order to serve the explosive demands of triple play services or multimedia services with high quality of data transmission in Fifth Generation (5G) communication systems which has availability of large spectrum unlike Fourth Generation (4G), low latency, improved transmission, and increased reliability, an access networks with optical fiber distribution network and wireless enabled technology is urgently needed and therefore, a prominent technology known as Radio over Fiber (RoF) is suggested by researcher/Scientists due to a perfect blend of flexible fiber technology and wireless mobility. RoF technology is helping the data transmission systems from last thirty years with great success and has numerous advantages such as scalability, transparency, antenna site complexity reduction, low installation cost, accessibility of radio carrier by diverse antenna sites dynamically. Millimeter waves (Mm waves) integration in 5G wireless RoF systems comes out to be an encouraging candidate to cater the bandwidth hungry current as well as future generation internet application such as high definition TV (HDTV), online games, video conferencing, and voice over IP (VoIP) etc. For the prolonged reach, economical installations, and improved performance, optimal Mm wave generation methods should be incorporated in 5G such as employing multi carrier generation technique (MCG). Deployment of single mode fiber (SMF) in 5G offers high speed, large capacity, improved security, etc., but also has a prominent limitation of nonlinear effects and it is unwanted phenomenon which degrade the system performance by introducing intermodulation distortion, distortion of signal phase, harmonic distortion, and interference in the neighbouring channels. Minimum modifications of architecture and minimum cost should be spent on the compensation of nonlinear effects or Kerr’s effects in RoF systems and recently mode division multiplexing has emerged as an ultimate solution. In this review article, detailed discussion of an evolutionary technology, i.e., RoF is presented with a literature review, present evaluations, and future challenges. Our utmost goal is to enrich the young researchers with precious aspects for RoF technology on single platform and also encourage them to conduct the technology advancement research works in various fields such as nonlinear compensation, Mm wave generation, dispersion compensation, cost reduction, complexity reduction, and security enhancements for 5G RoF systems.