Enhanced 4×4 MIMO RoF architecture for 5G mmWave indoor applications at 60 GHz unlicensed band

Abstract

4×4 Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) optical architecture based on Radio over Fiber (RoF) is proposed for 5G millimeter Wave (mmWave) indoor applications in the unlicensed 60 GHz band. First-order and second-order sidebands, generated by Dual-Drive Mach-Zehnder Modulator (DD-MZM), are exploited as optical subcarriers in order to reduce the number of Local Oscillators (LOs) implemented. Four MIMO-OFDM signals are multiplexed using Dual-Parallel Mach-Zehnder Modulator (DP-MZM) configured to perform Optical Carrier Suppression (OCS) modulation. 60 GHz spacing is ensured between each data signal and its corresponding subcarrier which allows simple heterodyne detection at Radio Access Point (RAP) level. In addition, we have proposed a 4×4 MIMO extension of Triple-S-and-Valenzuela (TSV) radio channel model based on geometrical approach. We demonstrate that the proposed RoF system with adequate configuration can meet the 5G New Radio (NR) requirement in terms of Error Vector Magnitude (EVM). Moreover, Bit Error Rate (BER) performance is evaluated with and without 5G NR channel coding, for transmission over 25 km of optical fiber followed by 3 m of radio channel, by exploiting the overall allocated band at 60 GHz which allows to achieve a very high data rate up to 122.5 Gb/s.