Power-over-fiber using double-clad fibers for radio-over-fiber systems

This work presents a power-over-fiber (PoF) using double-clad fibers (DCFs) for radio-over-fiber (RoF) systems. The DCF for the RoF link has a single-mode (SM) core and a multimode inner cladding; the SM core is used for both downlink and uplink transmissions of the optical RoF data signals, while the inner cladding is used for optical power delivery to the BS. The aim of this approach is to optically power the BS in such a way that external electrical power supplies such as batteries or public power lines are not required. The feasibility of the technique is demonstrated by RoF transmission over a 100-m DCF optically feeding with 4.0 W. We successfully achieved high downlink and uplink transmission performances from the CS to the BS in terms of bit-error rate and error-vector magnitude measurements, based on the IEEE 802.11g wireless local area network standard at a carrier frequency of 2.45 GHz.