Triple-play and 60-GHz radio-over-fiber techniques for next-generation optical access networks

Radio-over-fiber techniques apply to fiber-to-the-home distributions to reach the customer premises with the services to be received with full-standard low-cost equipment. Bi-directional coarse wavelength division multiplexing (CWDM) radio-over-fiber transmission of triple-format full-standard orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) signals in coexistence (LTE, WiMAX, and UWB) is experimentally evaluated. Optical distribution over 20.2 km of standard single-mode fiber (SSMF) in passive optical networks (PON) and further 3-m radio distribution is demonstrated. In addition, downlink performance of radio-over-fiber optical transmission employing vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs), and further wireless transmission, of standard OFDM UWB signals is reported when operating in the 60-GHz radio band. Performance is evaluated at 1.44 Gbit/s bitrate. PON transmission distance up to 40 km in SSMF with wireless transmission up to 5 m is demonstrated with no penalty.