International Journal of Recent Technology and Engineering (IJRTE)

ISSN: 2277-3878, Volume-8, Issue-1, May 2019

Photonic Generation of Millimeter Wave in

Radio-over-Fiber Transmission System
Jesslin George Koottala, Neethu Suman

 signal is carried out in the CS and simple Optical to

Abstract: The advancing communication networks provide Electrical and Electrical to optical conversion occurs in the
favorable circumstances for photonic technologies for achieving BS[4]. ODN or OFN is the optical fiber link system used for
the requirement of high data rate and reduced latency. The the transmission of the signal in the RoF transmission
optical fiber link which is the backbone of almost all
communication network has introduced the Radio over
system. Fig.1 shows the RoF system topology described by
Fiber(RoF) technology, in which the mobile front hauling Zin[4]. The radio frequency signal is fed as the input signal
comprises of two domains say, wireless and wired networks. and it is optically modulated using an optical modulator and
Millimeter wave spectrum usage is one of the evolved a continuous wave laser source. The signal is transmitted
technologies for the next generation communication network in through optical fiber. At the receiver end, optical signal is
wireless domain. Millimeter wave technology integrated with a demodulated and converted to electrical signal using a photo
ROF system is one of the promising technologies that could
provide seamless connectivity with high data rate and reduced
detector. Thus the radio frequency output signal is obtained.
latency. The integrated system provides the advantages of both
optical fiber links and the millimeter wave frequency spectrum.
The photonic generation of the Millimeter wave(MMW) signal in
MMW-ROF transmission system is a predominant process. In
MMW-RoF, conversion of an optical signal to an extremely high
frequency radio signal by utilizing photonic up-conversion
scheme is done. Thus obtaining the photonic generation of
millimeter wave. The study compares the MMW- RoF link with
two different optical modulation schemes.

Index Terms: Millimeter-wave, Optical, Photonic, Radio-

over-Fiber. Fig.1. RoF system topology by Zin[4].

I. INTRODUCTION The Millimetre wave (mm-wave) consists of a

The next generation communication network is expected spectrum of extremely high frequencies (EHF) ranging from
to provide high data rate with reduced latency. To meet frequency bands of 30GHz to 300 GHz[6]. A broad range of
these characteristics the wireless technologies have emerged spectrum can be allotted to the MM wave band.
with various technologies such as Coordinated Multipoint Additionally, MM waves are able to provide high data rates
(CoMP) Transmission, Distributed Antenna System (DAS), up to 10 Gbps and its spectrum allocation can be co-
Millimeter wave(MMW), Software Defined Radio(SDR), ordinated worldwide. The MM waves are capable of
Software Defined Network(SDN), Cognitive Radio(CR). generating high bit rates and provide worldwide
The simultaneous existence of the various technologies in coordination on spectrum allocation as compared to
the communication networks makes the a heterogeneous microwave ultra-wideband (UWB) technology[7]. The
network[1].The optical technologies have also evolved in range of coverage does not dynamically change for MM
parallel with the wireless technologies. Radio-over-Fiber wave signals. International harmonisation for MM waves is
possible and it establishes the necessary condition for a
transmission system is one of the proposed technology for
the next generation’s heterogenous network. Millimeter wider application of MM wave signals.
wave Radio over Fiber(MMW-RoF) is an integrated MM wave bands have been proposed for a high
technology of wireless and wired technologies. MMW-RoF capacity wireless systems employing ROF technology.
transmission system will have the benefits of using both According to Beans [8], the frequency around 60 GHz
extremely high frequency and optical fiber for the attracts global telecommunication’s interest. This global
transmission of the signal. attraction is primarily due the reason that the frequency
coincides with the oxygen peak levels, i.e. the frequencies
The RoF transmission system mainly consists of three
sections namely, Central Station (CS), Base Station (BS) have high atmospheric attenuation exceeding 15DB/Km.
and Optical Distribution Network (ODN) [2] or Optical High attenuation allows the reduction in the cell size
Fiber Network (OFN)[3]. All complex processing of the (picocells) [5] and frequency reuse distance in cellular
systems. Therefore, this factor increases the wireless
capacity. Also, The frequency range opens the opportunity
Revised Manuscript Received on May 22, 2019
Ms. Jesslin George Koottala, PG scholar, Department of Electronics & for the world-wide standardization and commercial
Communication Engineering, AdiShankara Institute of Engineering & production.
Technology, Kalady, India.
Ms. Neethu Suman, Asst. Professor , Department of Electronics &
Communication Engineering, AdiShankara Institute of Engineering &
Technology, Kalady, India.

Published By:
Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering
Retrieval Number: A1944058119/19©BEIESP 2400 & Sciences Publication
 Photonic Generation of Millimeter Wave in Radio-over-Fiber Transmission System

In North America there is 7 GHz of unlicensed spectrum modulated laser source, a phase modulator and the uplink
which overlaps with the unlicensed spectra of around 60 receiver. The phase modulator is driven by RF sinusoidal
GHz in Europe, Japan and Australia. The overall signals of the local oscillator. For downlink, the signal is
performance of an ROF system must consider the propagated through a single mode fiber(SMF). After the
performance of CS,BS and ODN. The advantages of both transmission through fiber, the received optical signal is
optical fibers and extremely high frequencies (EHF) are then filtered in the BS and then amplified. FBG is used for
combined to form the Millimeter Wave frequency ROF the reuse of the optical carrier in the uplink transmission of
transmission systems. The Millimeter Wave frequency ROF the signal[11].The reflected optical carrier, which passes
transmission systems are designed to build an efficient through the FBG, will then be applied to the optical
transmission system that supports high data rates. MM wave modulator and thus produce the required optical mm-wave
bands have been recently proposed for a broadband wireless signal for the uplink transmission. The photonic generation
systems employing ROF technology[5]. The Fig.2 describes of millimeter wave is obtained with the aid of a directly
an overview of subsystems of the RoF link[12]. The modulated laser, phase modulator and the local oscillator in
extremely high radio frequency carrier wave is optically the downlink and using FBG and phase modulator in the
generated and is referred to as the photonic generation of uplink.
millimeter wave. This optical carrier is utilized for optical
data modulation of the transmitter data. The optically
modulated data is transmitted through fiber-optic channel
and the signal is detected at the receiver end. The detected
signal is converted to electrical signal and the millimeter
wave frequency signal is transmitted through the wireless
channel.

Fig.3. The block diagram of a full-duplex RoF with photonic generation of

mm-wave proposed by Al-Dabbagh[11].

Fig.2. Block diagram of RoF subsystems described by Weiβ[12].

The simulation layout for the downlink
transmission implemented using Optisystem15[9] is shown
The primary concern in the architectural design of in Fig.4. Pseudo random bits are generated using a generator
telecommunication network is the design execution of an and corresponding pulses are obtained using the NRZ pulse
practically feasible, less complex and cost-effective generator. This pulse is fed to a directly modulated laser,
network. The ROF systems essentially require to be thus obtaining an optical data signal. This optical signal is
designed with a reduced cost and lesser operational modulated using phase modulator to which an extremely
complexities of the individual subject item which is CS, BS high frequency signal is fed as a carrier from a local
and ODN. The requirement of the high speed optical oscillator. In the layout 64GHz is given as the local
components, complex MM waves generating techniques and oscillator output frequency. The data is transmitted through
larger number of BS are the major drawbacks of ROF optical fiber.
systems that has to be taken into consideration. The optimal At the receiver end, the received signal is filtered
design of ROF should be such that the simpler design using a Gaussian filter and the filtered data is amplified
systems. using an optical amplifier. The amplified signal is filtered
Fiber Bragg Grating[FBG] is used for extraction of using an optical filter FBG[10], which extracts the 1550nm
light wave carrier from the received downlink signal and the carrier frequency from the data signal. The resulting filtered
extracted signal can be reused for the uplink photonic millimeter wave data signal is fed to a PIN photo
transmission[11]. The first RoF design proposed by Al- detector. The optical signal is converted to electrical signal
Dabbagh [11] for mm-wave generation is using phase and thus the required output is obtained.
modulator and the results are compared with the design
outcomes of the RoF using Mach Zehnder (MZ) modulator
for optical modulation.

II. METHODOLOGY
A. RoF using Phase Modulator
The design proposed by Al-Dabbagh [11] using
phase modulator is shown in Fig.3. The full-duplex mm-
wave RoF network is composed of the central station (CS)
and the base station(BS). BS is also referred as Remote
Antenna Unit (RAU). The CS is comprised of a directly

Published By:
Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering
Retrieval Number: A1944058119/19©BEIESP 2401 & Sciences Publication
 International Journal of Recent Technology and Engineering (IJRTE)
ISSN: 2277-3878, Volume-8, Issue-1, May 2019

Zehnder , simulated using Optisystem 15 is shown in Fig.7.

In the design layout, the bits are generated using a Pseudo
random bits generator and its corresponding pulses are
obtained using the NRZ pulse generator. The generated
5Gbps pulse are fed to a MZ modulator. The photonically
generated millimeter wave is obtained from the phase
modulator output. The output from phase modulator is fed to
MZ modulator, after boosting the signal using an erbium
doped fiber amplifier(EDFA), for optically modulating the
data signal. The data signal is superimposed on the
Fig.4. Layout of Downlink transmission using phase photonically generated signal, thus obtaining an optically
modulator.
modulated data signal. The data is transmitted through
optical fiber.
The resulting eye diagram obtained from the BER
Analyzer is shown in Fig.5.The distance of transmission of
the signal is 100Km. The process is followed by the
transmission and reception of the mm-wave wireless signal
to and from the user terminal by operating an antenna.

Fig.7.Layout of downlink using Mach Zehnder modulator.

At the receiver end, the received signal is amplified using

Erbium Doped Fiber Amplifier(EDFA) and is again
amplified using an optical amplifier.The amplified signal is
filtered using FBG[10], which extracts the 1550nm carrier
frequency from the data signal. The resulting, filtered
Fig.5. Eye diagram output obtained using Phase modulator. photonic millimeter wave data signal is filtered using a
Gaussian filter and the filtered output is fed to a PIN
B. RoF using Mach Zehnder modulator photodetector. The optical signal is converted to electrical
The full-duplex mm-wave RoF network design proposed signal and thus the required output is obtained. The resulting
by Al-Dabbagh[11], transmits using a phase modulator, eye diagram from the BER Analyzer, when transmitted at
which can be replaced by a Mach Zehnder(MZ) modulator 100 Km is shown in Fig.8.
as in Fig.6. The photonic generation of millimeter wave is
obtained with the aid of a continuous wave laser, Phase
modulator and sine wave generated using a sine wave
generator and the voltage controlled oscillator.

Fig. 8. Eye diagram of downlink transmission, obtained using Mach

Zehnder modulator
Fig.6. A block diagram of mm-wave photonic generation using Mach
Zehnder Modulator.
The simulation layout of the photonic generation of
millimeter wave and the data transmission using Mach

Published By:
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Retrieval Number: A1944058119/19©BEIESP 2402 & Sciences Publication
 Photonic Generation of Millimeter Wave in Radio-over-Fiber Transmission System

The two designs have pros and cons concerning the 4. Zin, A.M., Bongsu, M.S., Idrus, S.M. and Zulkifli, N., 2010, July. An
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systems: a survey. IEEE Communications surveys & tutorials, 15(4),
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There are many difficult tasks in the designing of 12. Weiβ, M., 60GHz photonic millimeter-wave communication
MMW-RoF transmission system. Nevertheless integrated systems (Doctoral dissertation, Ph. D. Thesis (University of Duisburg-
Essen, 2010)).
technology is a promising technology that can support high
data rate and provide seamless connectivity in the next
generation communication network. Developing a
practically feasible, less complex and cost effective AUTHORS PROFILE
transmission system design for MMW-RoF system is an
ongoing research process. There are several transmission Jesslin GeorgeKoottala received the B.Tech degree
in Electronics and Communication Engineering from
media technologies used for broad-band deployment Mahatma Gandhi University in 2012. She is currently
schemes that poses as a strong contenders for the Radio- pursuing the Master of Technology degree in
over-Fiber Transmission Systems. Communication Engineering at APJ Abdul Kalam
From the simulation results, it can be inferred that Technological University. Her research interest includes
optical fiber communication and telecommunication systems.
design using phase modulator and MZ modulator gave
better performance than the design using phase modulator
alone. It gives us an opportunity to develop a MMW-RoF, Neethu Suman received the B.Tech degree in
with photonic generation of MMW using phase modulator Electronics & Communication Engineering from
Mahatma Gandhi University in 2008 and M.Tech degree
and MZ modulator as optical modulator.
from Amrita VishwaVidyapeetham University in 2010.
A novel design of MMW-RoF with simplicity She is currently doing PhD under APJ Abdul Kalam
maintained at the base station will aid the next generation of Technological University. Her research interest is in wireless
mobile access networks. It will be possible to develop communication.
an MMW-RoF transmission system with less complex
photonic millimeter wave generation technique. This system
would be designed to meet high Q factor and least BER.
There are impairments like jitter in optical fiber
communication. Designing a feasible MMW-RoF
transmission system with reduction in the impairments
according to the application will make the system perform
better in the next generation communication networks.

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Published By:
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Retrieval Number: A1944058119/19©BEIESP 2403 & Sciences Publication