Analysis of performance degradation in Radio-over-Fiber systems based on IEEE 802.16 protocol

In order to the increasing demand for wireless connectivity and large coverage, Radio-over-Fiber (RoF) infrastructure has been suggested as a cost-effective solution for the provisioning of bandwidth in small cell size. In this article, we present an analysis of the use of RoF technology in IEEE 802.16 networks. The propagation delay introduced by the fiber length impacts the tuning of MAC and physical layers parameters. For an effective tuning, we present a comprehensive study of the performance degradation of WiMAX networks employing RoF infrastructure. Results were obtained using analytical models and simulations. Results indicate the viability of RoF scenarios with degradation bounded to 20% at physical layer when using fiber links with maximum length of 115 Km and degradation bounded to 20 % at application layer for fiber length up to 80 Km.