Abstract
Digital radio-over-fibre transmission has been studied extensively as a way of providing seamless last-mile wireless connectivity by carrying digitised radio frequency (RF) services over broadband optical infrastructures. With the growing demand on wireless capacity and the number of wireless services, a key challenge is the enormous scale of the digital data generated after the digitisation process. In turn, this leads to optical links needing to have very large capacity and hence, high capital expenditure (CAPEX). In this paper, we firstly present and then experimentally demonstrate a multiservice DRoF system for a neutral-host fronthaul link where both forward and reverse links use data compression, multiband multiplexing and synchronisation algorithms. The effect of a novel digital automatic gain control (DAGC) is comprehensively analysed to show an improved RF dynamic range alongside bit rate reduction. In this case, the system allows all cellular services from the three Chinese mobile network operators (MNOs) to be converged onto a single fiber infrastructure. We successfully demonstrate 14 wireless channels over a 10Gbps 20km optical link for indoor and outdoor wireless coverage, showing a minimum error value magnitude (EVM) of 60dB RF dynamic range. It is believed that the technology provides an ideal solution for last-mile wireless coverage in 5G and beyond.
Highlights
The increasing demand for wireless capacity and coverage for 5G mobile communications to provide ‘‘access anywhere to data services over wireless networks’’ is a major goal [1]–[4]
As there is a growing need for network convergence and Quality of Service (QoS) assurance, current solutions include using DRoF fronthaul links, such as defined in the common public radio interface (CPRI), to extend wireless coverage in a Cloud-radio access networks (RAN) (C-RAN) architecture where services are distributed from a centralised baseband unit (BBU) pool is more popular [9], [10]
In order to maximise the benefits brought by the neutral-host RAN paradigm, in this work, we firstly propose a neutral-host fronthaul concept to deliver the benefits of both centralisation and infrastructure-sharing in a DRoF system, which aims to create an open, cost-effective, flexible platform for conveying multiple wireless and wired services from different service providers
Summary
The increasing demand for wireless capacity and coverage for 5G mobile communications to provide ‘‘access anywhere to data services over wireless networks’’ is a major goal [1]–[4]. 2) We design a sequence of novel digital signal processing technics and algorithms for the DRoF system, including data compression with new dual-loop DAGC processing, data packetisation using a new fronthaul protocol and multiband multiplexing on both forward and reverse link of the system for system cost reduction.
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