Characterization of Multi-Functional Optical Interface for Multi-Channel Fiber-Radio Transmission in Heterogeneous Access Networks

Millimeter-wave (mm-wave) fixed wireless access with optical transport is able to provide future ultra- broadband connectivity. Optical single sideband with carrier (OSSB+C) modulation has been shown to overcome dispersion for signal transport in such systems while the optical spectral usage of OSSB+C signals can be improved by interleaving the mm-wave modulated optical signals. The merging of fiber- radio applications with other access networks has also been demonstrated, leading to a transparent heterogeneous access architecture. In a multiple radio environment the performance of the fiber-radio system is severely limited by the nonlinearity of the optical frontend, therefore improving its linearity is essential in such applications. Recently we proposed and experimentally demonstrated an optical interface based on arrayed-waveguide-gratings (AWGs) that supports multiple dense-WDM (DWDM) optical fiber-radio channels with the capability to reduce intermodulation distortion (IMD), multiplex multiple wavelength-interleaved DWDM channels and support simultaneous baseband data transport in a heterogeneous environment . In this paper we extend this work to encompass a detailed characterization of the proposed interface and investigate the trade-offs using simulations.