Full-Duplex Transmission of LTE-A Carrier Aggregation Signal Over a Bidirectional Seamless Fiber-Millimeter-Wave System

Abstract

We propose a flexible and high-performance fronthaul system for future mobile networks using a seamless combination of fiber-optic and millimeter-wave (MMW) systems. The proposed system employs a high-quality optical MMW signal generation at the transmitter and a stable and high-performance MMW self-homodyne detection at the receiver. In the downlink direction, successful transmission of intraband and interband carrier aggregation (CA) long-term evolution-advanced (LTE-A) signals over the system is experimentally confirmed. We also confirm satisfactory performance for the transmission over a fiber–wireless bridge using a cascade of the seamless system and a conventional radio-over-fiber (RoF) link. In the uplink direction, we successfully demonstrate the transmission of an intraband CA LTE-A signal over a cascade of a radio-on-radio and a RoF system. In addition, we confirm that the full-duplex transmission of LTE-A signals over the proposed bidirectional system does not experience performance degradation compared to the case with half-duplex transmission. The proposed system is a potential solution for mobile-signal transmission in future networks.