A scheme to generate 16QAM-OFDM vector mm-wave signal based on a single MZM without optical filter and precoding

Abstract

In this paper, a novel and relatively simple scheme for generation of high-quality 16QAM-modulated multi-carrier vector millimeter-wave (mm-wave) was proposed, which was only based on a single Mach–Zehnder modulator (MZM), while the precoding technique and optical filter were not needed. At the transmitter, electrical dual single sideband (SSB) signals were generated by a digital signal processing (DSP) module, in which the frequency of modulated signals could be adjusted flexibly. Employing the generated dual-SSB signal to drive a push–pull MZM biased at Quad point, optical dual-SSB 16-QAM OFDM signals were obtained. After a photodiode, higher frequency OFDM vector mm-wave signals were achieved by beating. Based on the proposed method, a simulation platform of generating 30 GHz 16QAM OFDM vector mm-wave signals was set up and the performance of the generated OFDM vector mm-wave was analyzed. The results show that the bit-error ratio of the transmission system were less than hard decision forward-error correction threshold of 3.8×10−3, which demonstrates that the generation of OFDM vector signal can work well.