Optical impairments mitigation in millimeter-wave fiber-wireless systems

Abstract

Hybrid fiber-wireless networks for fixed wireless access operating in the millimeter-wave wave (mm-wave) frequency region have been actively pursued to provide untethered connectivity to ultra-high bandwidth communications. The architecture of such radio networks requires a large number of antenna base stations with high throughput to be deployed to maximize the geographical coverage with main switching and routing functionalities located in a centralized location. The transportation of mm-wave wireless signals within the hybrid network is subject to low opto-electronic conversion efficiency, fiber chromatic dispersion and also signal degradation due to nonlinearity along the link. One of the major technical challenges in implementing such networks lies in the mitigation of the various optical impairments that the wireless signals experience within the hybrid network. In this paper, we present an overview of the different techniques and schemes to overcome some of the signal impairments in transporting mm-wave radio signals over optical networks.