Demonstration of Mobile Fronthaul Test Bed Based on RoF Technology Supporting Two Frequency Assignments and 2 × 2 MIMO Antennas

Abstract

We demonstrate a next-generation high-capacity mobile fronthaul based on radio over fiber (RoF) technology, which links between a digital unit and a radio unit supporting two frequency assignments and 2 × 2 multiple input, multiple output antennas. To confirm the technical feasibility of a mobile fronthaul, we experimentally investigate its down-and uplink end-to-end performances including the optical and radio frequency (RF) signal path. Frequency-dependent performance deviations, error vector magnitude variations, overall system performance variations caused by optical to electrical conversion, and intermediate frequency to RF conversions are examined. Experimental verifications on multiple LTE uplink signals are performed for the first time. We also demonstrate several commercial mobile Internet services, YouTube video streaming, and file transfers using off-the-shelf mobile devices, through a mobile fronthaul based on RoF.

High Capacity Mode Division Multiplexing Based MIMO Enabled All-Optical Analog Millimeter-Wave Over Fiber Fronthaul Architecture for 5G and Beyond

“…The low frequency is aimed to support the conventional networks while the high frequencies are envisioned for the high data rate provision and emerging small cell networks. On the other hand, an analog intermediate frequency over fiber (A-IFoF) based mobile fronthaul testbed was presented in [30], which supports two frequency association and 2 × 2 MIMO antennas. The real-time evaluation of this testbed is performed through demonstrating commercial mobile internet services such as Skype and YouTube video streaming over 20-km standard single-mode fiber (SMF).…”

Evaluation of Radio Resource Management Impact on RoF Signal Transmission for Downlink LTE

“…Many works focus on the study of the maximum input power which satisfies the EVM requirements for LTE signals established by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) under different parameters, such as the measured constellations Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK), Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) (16-QAM, 64-QAM), the input power vs fiber lengths, the carrier aggregation scheme, etc. In [5] an automatic input level controller was needed to achieve the best EVM performance of a downstream RF signal when, besides the optical fiber subsystem (FO), the high power amplifier (HPA) at the input of the antenna is explicitly considered. EVM degradation will be observed at the HPA output if the received power at the RRH drives the amplifier stage out of its linear operation range.…”