Analog Radio-Over-Fiber Transceivers Based on III–V-on-Silicon Photonics

Abstract

Analog radio-over-fiber transceivers allow a substantial reduction in the complexity of the remote radio heads in the wireless network of the future. In this paper we discuss the building blocks for such a transceiver implemented on a silicon photonics platform, with the heterogeneous integration of III-V devices and the co-integration with electronics. Transmission experiments that demonstrate the viability of such integrated analog transceivers are described.

Towards a Scaleable 5G Fronthaul: Analog Radio-over-Fiber and Space Division Multiplexing

“…While ARoF fronthaul holds a lot of promise for mm-wave 5G networks, the realization of such promise will strongly depend on the use of photonic integration and the implementation of ARoF transceivers in photonic integrated circuits (PICs). Only with such integration can ARoF systems achieve the spatial and energy footprints required for ubiquitous and densely deployed 5G mm-wave with ARoF fronthaul and also be attractive from a cost perspective [20]. Integrated ARoF transceivers further enable the use of optical beamforming, where analog beamforming functionality for mm-wave signals is implemented in compact microwave photonic circuits rather than bulky and power hungry RF electronics [21].…”

Real-Time 100-GS/s Sigma-Delta Modulator for All-Digital Radio-Over-Fiber Transmission

“…SDoF has not been reported for frequency bands beyond 24 GHz due to the limited sampling rate of the state-of-the-art SDMs as summarized in [4], [8], [9]. Therefore, when a simple RRU is required, prior works mainly rely on the ARoF, where the baseband or intermediate frequency (IF) signal is translated to the carrier frequency by either analog [10], [11] or optical up-conversion [12], [13]. However, the main drawbacks of these approaches are the sensitivity to nonlinearities in the electrical-to-optical (E/O) conversion [14] and the requirement of additional components for frequency up-conversion.…”

A Silicon Photonic Switching Platform for Flexible Converged Centralized-Radio Access Networking

“…Adding to this SiP's highly discussed potential to augment optical networking capabilities and throughput in DC interconnects [15], it is easy to see the attraction of the platform in the context of a converged optical network. Our previous work [16] has demonstrated the ability of a differential drive SiP Mach-Zehnder Modulator (MZM) to support efficient A-RoF service provisioning, while [17] describes and experimentally evaluates a fully integrated A-RoF transceiver on a SiP platform. [18]…”