Ring‐modulator‐based RoF system with local SSB modulation and remote carrier reuse

Abstract

A full-duplex radio-over-fibre (RoF) system based on an integrated silicon ring modulator is proposed and demonstrated. For the downstream link, a coherent dual-wavelength laser source is coupled to a silicon ring modulator in the central office (CO). Since only one of the optical carriers in the dual-wavelength laser source is aligned to the resonance of the ring modulator, a single sideband (SSB) modulated optical downstream signal is obtained, which is able to combat the power fading introduced by the fibre dispersion. Besides, for the upstream link, the unmodulated optical carrier in the SSB-modulated optical downstream signal is reused by using an optical filter in the remote radio head. After being modulated by the upstream data, the optical upstream signal is transmitted back to the CO. A proof-of-concept experiment is carried out. Error vector magnitudes of 21-GHz downstream and 10-GHz upstream signals are measured, which confirms that the proposed architecture is a promising low-cost solution for future high-speed wireless communication systems.