A Comparison of Optical Transport Technologies for Wireless Communications Using Optical Ground Wire in Smart Grid

Abstract

Realization of smart grid is a big challenge for not only electrical power grid but also communication network, because real time and highly reliable mission critical communication network based on wireless communications will be indispensable. Furthermore, requirements of wideband communication network for sensing and monitoring utilities and maintenance works are also increasing. To realize future communication network cost-effectively and energy-efficiently, centralized radio access network architecture that use optical fiber based fronthaul network has attracted attention from both academia and industry. In this paper, we propose a design of wireless access network using existing optical ground wires for centralized radio access network architecture for the first time. In the proposed configuration, remote radio heads on transmission towers are arranged linearly. We investigate the applicability of optical data transport technologies of physical layer split, analog radio-on-fiber, and common public radio interface. Finally, we comparatively analyze the deployment costs under different transport technologies and our results show that physical layer split and analog radio-on-fiber with subcarrier multiplexing result in lower cost than other technologies.