Title :
A Colorless Remote Antenna Unit for Bidirectional Photonic Antenna Remoting
Author :
Beibei Zhu ; Gang Chen ; Fangzheng Zhang ; Ronghui Guo ; Dan Zhu ; Shilong Pan
Author_Institution :
Key Lab. of Radar Imaging & Microwave Photonics, Nanjing Univ. of Aeronaut. & Astronaut., Nanjing, China
Abstract :
A colorless (wavelength-independent) remote antenna unit (RAU) for bidirectional photonic antenna remoting is proposed and demonstrated, which is based on a reflective semiconductor optical amplifier electroabsorption modulator (SOA-EAM). Due to the gain saturation effect in the semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) of the reflective SOA-EAM, the microwave signal carried by the downlink optical signal is received and effectively erased. Then, the electroabsorption modulator (EAM) converts the uplink RF signal to an optical signal, which is reflected back to the center office (CO) by the high-reflection coated facet of the device to provide the uplink service. No signal downconversion is needed since the modulation bandwidth of the EAM can reach tens of GHz. A proof-of-concept experiment is carried out. The RAU performs well in a bidirectional radio over fiber (ROF) system for providing 500 Mb/s wireless services centered at 2 GHz.
Keywords :
electro-optical modulation; electroabsorption; microwave photonics; radio-over-fibre; semiconductor optical amplifiers; EAM modulation bandwidth; bidirectional ROF system; bidirectional photonic antenna remoting; bidirectional radio-over-fiber system; bit rate 500 Mbit/s; colorless remote antenna unit; downlink optical signal; frequency 2 GHz; gain saturation effect; high-reflection coated facet; microwave signal; optical signal; proof-of-concept experiment; reflective SOA-EAM; reflective semiconductor optical amplifier electroabsorption modulator; uplink RF signal; uplink service; wavelength-independent RAU; wavelength-independent remote antenna unit; Antennas; Downlink; Optical modulation; Optical polarization; Optical saturation; Photonics; Uplink; Antenna; microwave photonics; radio over fiber;
Journal_Title :
Microwave and Wireless Components Letters, IEEE
DOI :
10.1109/LMWC.2013.2295232
