Dual Polarization Optical Slicing for C-RAN in 5G Networks based on Radio-over-Fiber

Abstract

This paper investigates the potential of a dual polarized optical spectral slicing system to enable high-capacity optical links in the Cloud-Radio Access Network (C-RAN) segment based on Radio-over-Fiber (RoF) of a 5G network. The process of signal generation based on optical slicing with dual polarization is described analytically and a conducted experimental demonstration is performed to assess the feasibility of the proposal. Experimental results focus on the Error Vector Magnitude (EVM) measurements for 0.1 nm, 0.5 nm, and 1 nm dual polarized optical slices. Data is experimentally measured for QPSK and 64QAM signals at 1.7 GHz and 3.5 GHz carrier frequencies across 10 km of single mode optical fiber. The results demonstrate that the 0.1 nm optical slice with QPSK at 1.7 GHz leads to an EVM of 2.4%, while an EVM of 4.5% is observed for 64QAM under the same conditions. Additionally, simulation modeling projects the feasibility of RoF transport of 64QAM signals at 1.7 GHz and 3.5 GHz over 25 km and 16 km fiber links respectively.

Keywords

• Optical spectral slicing
• fronthaul
• 5G
• Optical signal generation
• Radio-over-Fiber