The millimeter-wave (mm-wave) frequency band has emerged as a means to overcome current radio frequency spectral limitations and represents an interesting solution to fulfill the bandwidth and networking requirements of fifth generation (5G) mobile communications and beyond. Photonic generation of these frequencies holds advantages over electronic methods in terms of cost and effective network distribution. Due to their coherent nature, optical frequency combs (OFC) are a promising solution for the efficient generation of mm-wave frequencies. The work outlined examines the use of OFCs in a mm-wave radio-over-fiber (RoF) heterodyne system with regard to the specific requirements of a 5G candidate waveform, universally filtered orthogonal frequency division multiplexing. Through experimentation and simulation, the key limitations of linewidth, effective path length difference, and relative intensity noise (RIN) are explored. Results are presented, in terms of error vector magnitude (EVM), for a wide range of system parameters highlighting important considerations to be taken in designing future mm-wave RoF systems employing OFCs. Performance of ~5% EVM using single sideband modulation is achieved for optimized system conditions and an RIN level of -132 dB/Hz.

Millimeter-wave communications may be harnessed to help meet future 5G network bandwidth requirements, but the generation of these frequencies in the electronic domain can be difficult and costly. Photonic techniques, such as optical heterodyning, can be exploited to generate millimeter-wave frequencies in a manner which is efficient and compatible with fiber transport infrastructure. In this letter, analog radio-over-fiber transmission of five bands of UF-OFDM, with optical heterodyning around 60 GHz, is experimentally demonstrated over 25 km SSMF, and performance well below the forward error correction limit is achieved for an aggregate raw bit rate of 4.56 Gb/s. Additionally, the importance of precise optical phase correlation in these systems is highlighted with respect to future 5G system requirements.

A 25-Gb/s OFDM 60-GHz radio over fiber (RoF) transmission system employing a gain switched DFB laser for millimeter-wave generation is demonstrated. Transmission performance below the 7% FEC limit is achieved over 50 km of fiber initially by employing precompensation. This precompensation overcomes phase noise caused by the optical phase decorrelation induced by chromatic dispersion on the two optical channels separated by 60 GHz. An externally injected gain switched laser is subsequently employed to eradicate the need for the precompensation, thus reducing phase noise and increasing the tolerance to the induced time delay between the optical tones. Transmission performance below the 7% limit is achieved over 25 km of fiber with 2-m wireless transmission in this case.

A novel scheme for the expansion and phase correlation of a wavelength tunable gain-switched optical frequency comb (OFC) is presented. This method entails firstly combining two gain-switched OFCs and expanding them using a phase modulator. Subsequently, the phase correlation between all the comb lines is induced through four-wave mixing (FWM) in a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA). In this article, the generation of 42 highly correlated comb lines separated by 6.25 GHz, with an optical carrier to noise ratio (OCNR) of more than 50 dB, is experimentally demonstrated. In addition, the wavelength tunability of the scheme, over 30 nm within the C band, is shown. Finally, the degree of phase correlation between comb lines is verified through RF beat tone linewidth measurements. The results show a five orders of magnitude reduction in the beat tone linewidth, due to FWM in an SOA.

The measurement of distance plays an important role in many aspects of modern societies. In this paper, an absolute distance measurement method for arbitrary distance is proposed and demonstrated using mode-resolved spectral interferometry with a gain-switched dual comb. An accuracy of 12 µm, when compared to a He-Ne fringe counting laser interferometer, for a displacement up to 2.5 m is demonstrated by tuning the repetition frequency of the dual comb from 1.1 GHz to 1.4 GHz. The compact measurement system based on a gain-switched dual comb breaks the constraint of periodic ambiguity. The simplification and improvements are significant for further industrial applications.

This paper studies the key aspects of an optical link which transmits a broadband microwave filter bank multicarrier (FBMC) signal. The study is presented in the context of creating an all-analogue real-time multigigabit orthogonal frequency division multiplexing electro-optical transceiver for short range and high-capacity data center networks. Passive microwave filters are used to perform the pulse shaping of the bit streams, allowing an orthogonal transmission without the necessity of digital signal processing (DSP). Accordingly, a cyclic prefix that would cause a reduction in the net data rate is not required. An experiment consisting of three orthogonally spaced 2.7 Gbaud quadrature phase shift keyed subchannels demonstrates that the spectral efficiency of traditional DSP-less subcarrier multiplexed links can be potentially doubled. A sensitivity of -29.5 dBm is achieved in a 1-km link.