Bidirectional hybrid OFDM based free-space/wireless-over-fiber transport system

Abstract

We propose and demonstrate a successful application of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM), reflective semiconductor optical amplifier and polarization multiplexing techniques to facilitate bidirectional hybrid OFDM based integrated free-space optics and wireless transport system. The downlink 12 Gbps OFDM data-stream and 79 community antenna television (CATV) channels are transmitted over 50 km single mode fiber (SMF) as well as 12 m and 10 m free-space link, respectively. The uplink 10 Gbps/5 GHz and 5 Gbps/3.5 GHz OFDM data streams are communicated over separate 50 km SMF along with 8 m wireless links. We have used 32-quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) and 16-QAM modulation formats for downlink and uplink, correspondingly. The performance of the system is observed by evaluating carrier-to-noise ratio (CNR), composite second-order (CSO) and composite-triple-beat (CTB) for the CATV signal, and constellations diagrams, bit error rate (BER), signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), and error vector magnitude (EVM) values for the OFDM signals. After transmission over 50 km SMF as well as 10 m free-space, the resulting CNR, CSO and CTB values are > 51 dB, 23.3 dB, respectively. 4 dBm and 3.2 dBm power penalties at BER of $$10^{ - 8}$$, below 13% EVM and > 21.3 dB/ > 22.2 dB SNR values are observed for the uplink 10 Gbps/5 GHz and the 5 Gbps/3.5 GHz OFDM data signals, respectively, over 50 km SMF as well as 8 m wireless is observed.