Proceedings of National Conference on Challenges & Opportunities in Information Technology (COIT-2007)

RIMT-IET, Mandi Gobindgarh. March 23, 2007.

RADIO OVER FIBER NETWORKS

#Pardeep Kaur1,R.S.Kaler2

1
2

M.E(E.C.E-final yr), Thapar university,Patiala,maanpardeep@gmail.com

Professor & H.O.D(ECE),Thapar University ,Patiala,rskaler@gmail.com

Abstract
The predicted growth in mobile phone traffic and move
towards enhanced mobility will lead to a need for wireless
infrastructure that provides increased bandwidth per user
.future wireless networks will require an optical network to
provide antenna base station with sufficient bandwidth to
provide individual users with more bandwidth .
Fig. 1.1 Optical spectrum usage in a WDM fiber-radio
network

1. Introduction
Current second-generation wireless voice networks use carrier
frequencies of 1-2 GHz and user data rates of 10 kbps
for voice and SMS messages .Third- Generation or 3G
wireless networks can provide data rates varying from 100
kbps (in vehicles) to 2 Mbps indoors whilst operating at
similar RF (radio) frequencies. 3G offers the potential to
distribute images and provide other low-data rate services
such as maps, local information, timetables, etc. One of the
key factors in increasing data rates is to correspondingly
increase carrier frequencies, potentially into the millimeterwave range (30-300 GHz). While certain frequency bands
suffer from very high loss due to OH absorption, this high loss
allows very small cell-sizes to be used, re-using the same
frequency in non-adjacent cells(1)
A fiber- radio network is a hybrid network that uses an optical
network to deliver wireless data from a Central Office (CO) to
remote radio Base Stations (BSs) as shown in Figure 1.1.
Figure 1.1 shows that the CO provides the interface
between an external network(typically a Metropolitan Area
Network (MAN) or Local Area Network (LAN)) and a
wireless network in which multiple BSs provide wireless
coverage to Mobile Units (MUs). A fiber-radio network
differs from a traditional fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) access
network in that the transported data is at a wireless frequency
and not at baseband,

Figure 1.1 shows that each BS is allocated a separate

optical wavelength in the downlink (from CO to BS),
which can be re-used in the uplink direction (from BS to
CO) Note that using the same wavelength in both directions
is not a requirement, since a channel offset scheme can
be used or downlink and uplink channels can be
interleaved. One of the main factors that determines the
nature of the optical network and the equipment used at the
CO and BSs is whether or not data destined for BSs is sent
at baseband or at an intermediate- or radio-frequency (IF or
RF) Figure 3 shows how baseband modulation is
implemented

Fig 1.2:CO and BS configuration and RF and optical spectra

for RF sub carrier modulation

A. optical and wireless domain

A fiber-radio network comprises two distinct domains,
one optical and one wireless. In the optical domain,
Wavelength Division multiplexing (WDM) can be use to
combine several wavelengths together to send them through
a fiber-optic network, greatly increasing the use of the
available fiber bandwidth and maximising total data
throughput that in order to meet future wireless bandwidth
requirements, a single CO feeds each remote radio BS and
has access to a separate optical wavelength,as illustrated in
Figure 2.

2 WDM and Optical Crosstalk

WDM involves multiplexing multiple wavelengths and
transporting them in a single fiber. Current technology
allows one to two hundred channels to be transported in a
single fiber, achieving Tb/s total capacity If WDM is used
in a fiber-radio network, then each BS can be assigned a
single wavelength..A WDM network requires wavelength
selective optical components that can multiplex or
demultiplex channels or that can drop or add channels These
components are imperfect and can not fully remove

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Proceedings of National Conference on Challenges & Opportunities in Information Technology (COIT-2007)

RIMT-IET, Mandi Gobindgarh. March 23, 2007.

the fiber required as multiple wavelengths are

transported over a single optical fibre.Network management
is easier as different BSs are allocated different
wavelengths. Future demand can be met by designing
the network

unwanted channels, leading to optical crosstalk, i.e. the

presence of an undesired optical signal .Although optical
components can reject adjacent wavelength channels by up
to 30 dB or more some residual signals will still be present,
particularly if channels powers are unequal. This type of
unwanted crosstalk is referred to as inhomodyne or
heterodyne or inter- channel crosstalk, or simply as out-ofband crosstalk. This type of crosstalk does not severely
impair network performance as it is at a different
wavelength as the desired signal and is simply added to the
signal in the electrical domain(2)
A much more detrimental type of crosstalk occurs when the
crosstalk signal is at the same wavelength as the desired
signal.This is referred to as intra-channel or homodyne
or in-band crosstalk and causes so- called phase-induced
interferometric noise (PIIN).Furthermore, since it is at the
same wavelength as the signal it can not be filtered.

A WDM Point-To-Point Links

In Figure 2.2, data is modulated onto RF carriers within
different frequency bands f1 to fF before being modulated
onto different optical wavelengths 1 to N.
The
wavelengths are combined and coupled into a single optical
fiber link via a Wavelength Division Multiplexer (WDM).
Frequency re-use in the electrical domain is possible, so that
all frequency bands f1 to fF can be re-used and allocated to
different wavelengths. This allows the limited wireless
spectrum to be re-used in non-adjacent radio cells.

Fig 2.2: downlink & uplink implementation using wdm

Fig 2.1 :optical crosstalk

Figure 2.2 (a) shows how both downstream and upstream

paths can be implemented using two separate fiber links and
only two WDM multiplexers / demultiplexers At the CO,
downlink wavelengths are multiplexed by the WDM,
while
arriving upstream
WDM
channels
are
demultiplexed by the same WDM. Similarly for the
second RN WDM, which demultiplexes downstream
wavelengths and sends them to individual BSs, whilst
multiplexing wavelengths from different BSs in the
uplink direction. . In Figure 2.2 (b) the two separate
downlink and uplink unidirectional spans are replaced by a
single bidirectional link

The presence of optical crosstalk in WDM fibre-radio

networks will affect etwork design performance.The
nature of the modulation format if subcarrier
multiplexing is used may also be important in determining
the level of optical crosstalk that can be tolerated for a given
system margin.
WDM FIBER-RADIO NETWORKS
Wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) will allow
future fiber-radio networks to use the large bandwidth
capacity of optical fiber to deliver high-bandwidth wireless
data services to multiple remote antenna BSs. While
WDM technology is widely used in long-haul trunk
networks and metro networks, it has yet to break into local
access networks. Unlike cable TV optical networks, fibreradio networks are individual BSs deliver different wireless
data, which is digital and not analogue, to and from the CO.
By using multiple optical wavelengths, different optical
wavelengths are assigned to different BSs in a wavelengthrouted fibre-radio network. The allocation of different
optical wavelengths to different BSs allows each BS to have
access to a much larger data bandwidth than for a
network sharing one or more wavelengths. Future
requirements for larger wireless data rates naturally leads to
the use of WDM in the optical network. WDM minimises

B. WDM Star Networks

Fig 2.3: fiber radio star network

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Proceedings of National Conference on Challenges & Opportunities in Information Technology (COIT-2007)

RIMT-IET, Mandi Gobindgarh. March 23, 2007.

uplink, requiring a 1550 / 1330 WDM at each BS.

Experimental results demonstrated fault restoration in the ring.
each OADM comprised two fibre Bragg gratings (FBGs) and
two optical circulators.This configuration simplified the BS
architecture since all optical sources were at the CO, although
it required an additional FBG at each OADM. An additional
benefit of using different wavelengths is that in- band
crosstalk is eliminated, although an additional Bragg grating is
required.

C. WDM RING NETWORK

A generic ring network architecture is shown in Figure 2.3

D .Wavelength Interleaved Radio-over-Fiber Systems

By recurring to dense wavelength division multiplexing
(DWDM) technique, the huge bandwidth of the fiber
would he a preferred medium to support and feed all of
BSs needed in a fiber-optic access network infrastructure
Recently, a simple method to increase the spectral
efficiency by optical frequency interleaving was proposed
in which the modulation format could be either optical
double side hand (DSB) or optical single side hand (SSB)

Fig 2.4:Fiber radio ring network

Multiple optical wavelengths are multiplexed at the CO
using a WDM and are sen around the ring in one direction.
Individual OADMs are used around the ring to drop ndividual
wavelengths to individual BSs.The same wavelength can be
added back in to the ring in the uplink direction (note that a
different wavelength can also be used). The main difference
between ring and star networks lies in the fiber layout, which
forms a loop for a ring network, terminating at the CO. A
ring network also requires a larger number of optical
components, and has unequal CO-BS link distances.One of
the main benefits of a ring architecture lies in its increased
reliability if a second fiber is used, allowing a loop-back
protection scheme to be used in case of link or node failure as
shown in Figure 2.4.

Fig 3.1: wavelength interleaving technique

One possible solution for the distribution of this kind of
signals from the central station to the successive base
stations(4). This technique has the possibility ofallowing
multiple channels to share the spectrum, and at thesame
time since it is based on reflective filter add drops can
allow low insertion losses, since no signal splitting is
needed.

Fig 2.5: ring scm &cdma

E. improved technique

Fiber radio ring architectures have been described Also

consider a single-wavelength ring network using SCM
and CDMA, as shown in Figure 2.4 Furthermore, since the
same wavelength was destined for all BSs, optical couplers
were used at the ring nodes instead of OADMs to tap off some
of the optical power to each BS.(3) While a 1550 nm source
was used in the downlink, a 1300 nm LED was used for the

Highly birefringent fiber Bragg gratings (Hi-Bi FBG) have

shown already its use in some telecommunication applications
Its growing interest and possible benefits lead us to a new use
for Radio over Fiber Networks.

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Proceedings of National Conference on Challenges & Opportunities in Information Technology (COIT-2007)

RIMT-IET, Mandi Gobindgarh. March 23, 2007.

Immunity to electromagnetic interference is a very attractive

property of optical fiber communications, especially for
microwave transmission. This is so
because signals are transmitted in the form of light through the
fiber. Because of this immunity, fiber cables are preferred even
for short connections at mm-waves.Related to RFI immunity
is the immunity to eavesdropping, which is an important
characteristic of optical fiber communications, as it provides
privacy and security.
Fig3.2.: Reflection spectrum of typical fiber Bragg grating

D. Easy Installation and Maintenance

However, this type of Hi-Bi gratings have the particularity of

having two independent peaks tightly spaced and having each
orthogonal polarizations, as explained in an example of Fig. 6.it
is important to notice that this grating was not optimizedfor
this application, however the main restrictions, spacing and
bandwidth, are almost all verified. If we take a signal coming
from a RoF signal modulator, the carrier at the carrier
wavelength and the modulated data at the mm-wave frequency,
and pass it through a Hi-Bi FBG designed for that signal, onecan
have, at the output, the carrier and the signal in two
different polarizations.

In RoF systems, complex and expensive equipment is kept

at the SCs, thereby making remote base stations simpler. For
instance, most RoF techniques eliminate the need for a local
oscillator and related equipment at the Remote Station
(RS).In such cases a photodetector, an RF amplifier, and an
antenna make up the RS equipment. Modulation and switching
equipment are kept in the SC at the headend and shared by
several RS. This arrangement results in smaller and lighter RS, e
ffectively reducing system installation and maintenance costs.
Easy installation and low maintenance costs of RS are very
important requirements for mm-wave systems, because of the
large numbers of the required antenna sites

3 ADVANTAGES AND BENEFITS OF THE ROF

E .Reduced Power Consumption
A .Low Attenuation Loss
Electrical distribution of high frequency microwave signals either
in free space or through transmission lines is problematic and
costly. In free space, losses due to absorption and reflection
increase with frequency. In transmission lines, impedance rises
with frequency as well.
. .
B Large Bandwidth
Optical fibres offer enormous bandwidth.There are three
main transmission windows, which offer low attenuation,
namely the 850nm, 1310nm and 1550nm wavelengths. For a
single SMF optical fibre, the combined bandwidth of the three
windows is in the excess of 50THz . The main driving factors
towards unlocking more and more bandwidth out of the optical
fiber include the availability of low dispersion (or dispersion
shifted) fiber, the Erbium Doped Fibre Amplifier (EDFA) for the
1550nm window, and the use of advanced multiplex techniques
namely Optical Time Division Multiplexing (OTDM) in
combination with Dense Wavelength Division Multiplex
(DWDM) techniques.
C Immunity to Radio Frequency Interference

Reduced power consumption is a consequence of having

simple RSs with reduced equipment.Most of the complex
equipment is kept at the central SC.
F. Operational Flexibility
RoF does offer operational benefits in terms of operational
flexibility. Firstly, depending on the microwave generation
technique, a RoF distribution system can be made signal
format transparent.For instance the Intensity Modulation and
Direct Detection (IMDD) technique can be made to operate as a
linear system and therefore as a transparent system.
Secondly, with the switching, modulation, and other functions
performed at a centralized SC, it is possible to allocate
capacity dynamically.
4 APPLICATIONS OF RADIO-OVER-FIBER
TECHNOLOGY
A Cellular Networks
The field of mobile networks is an important application
area of RoF technology. The ever-rising number of mobile
subscribers coupled with the increasing demand for

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Proceedings of National Conference on Challenges & Opportunities in Information Technology (COIT-2007)

RIMT-IET, Mandi Gobindgarh. March 23, 2007.

broadband services have kept sustained pressure on mobile

networks to offer increased capacity(5).Therefore, mobile
traffic (GSM or UMTS) can be relayed cost effectively
between the SCs and the BSs by exploiting the benefits of SMF
technology
B Satellite Communications
it involves the remoting of antennas to suitable locations at
satellite earth stations.By so doing, high frequency equipment
can be centralised.The second application involves the remoting
of earth stations themselves
C Mobile Broadband Services
The Mobile Broadband System or Service (MBS) concept is
intended to extend the services available in fixed Broadband
Integrated Services Digital Network (B-ISDN) to mobile users
of all kinds. Since very high bit rates of about 155 Mbps per
user must be supported, carrier frequencies are pushed into

mm-waves.Therefore, frequency bands in the 60 GHz band

have been allocated.
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Optical crosstalk in fiber- radio WDM networksIEEE
Transactions on Microwave Theory & Techniques, vol. 49 pp
2030-5, 2004.
[2]L. Moura, M. Darby, P. M. Lane, and J. J. O'Reilly, Impact
of interferometric noise on the remote delivery of optically
generated millimeter-wave signalsIEEE Transactions on
Microwave Theory & Techniques, vol. 45, pp1398-402, 2002.
[3]ANTONIO TEIXERRA,filter optimization for wavelength
intertleaved radio over fiber networksieee transactions ,2003
[4]A. Nirmalathas, D. Novak, C. Lim, and R. B. Waterhouse.
Wavelength reuse in the WDM optical interface of a millimeterwave fiber-wireless antenna base station, IEEE Transactions on
Microwave Theory & Techniques, vol. 49, 2001.
[5]Istavan frigyes,radio over fiber: application, design and
impactIEEE journal of selected areas in communication, Jun
2001.

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