The architecture of hybrid mm-wave ARoF Super-PON system for 5G implementation

• Published in: Optical fiber technology 2021-12, Vol.67, p.102697, Article 102697
• Main Authors: Ostrovskis, Armands, Kurbatska, Inna, Salgals, Toms, Spolitis, Sandis, Bobrovs, Vjaceslavs
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Fifth-generation (5G) cellular mobile communications; Millimeter-wave Radio-over-Fiber; Super-PON
• ISSN: 1068-5200; 1095-9912
• DOI: 10.1016/j.yofte.2021.102697

•Hybrid ARoF Super-PON architecture for broadband service and 5G mobile communication is presented.•Generation of the mm-wave signal by heterodyne photonic upconversion is implemented.•Several IF frequencies in Ka-band are addressed to investigate the performance of the ARoF Super-PON communication system.•The proposed communication system includes commercially available SFP+ modules in RoF transmitters to maintain cost-effectiveness and simplify the network deployment. Fifth-generation mobile communications are delivering higher data rates and low latency services for costumer by utilizing the benefits of optical fiber. In this paper, we propose the architecture of a hybrid millimeter-wave (mm-wave) analog radio-over-fiber (ARoF) Super-PON optical network for future broadband service and the latest fifth-generation 5G/5G + cellular mobile communications. Our proposed infrastructure shows the trade-off between technology and costs where the optical access network architecture is technologically transformed to transport intermediate frequencies (IF) through the existing fiber optical distribution network (ODN) by integrating baseband units (BBUs) into optical line terminals (OLTs) and the remote radio units (RU) into optical network terminals (ONTs), leaving the traditional broadband architecture unchanged. Performance of investigated mm-wave ARoF Super-PON transmission systems in the C-band downlink scenario for both broadband and mobile service is shown. With the proposed hybrid architecture, it is possible to provide cost-effective deployment of future 5G/5G+ networks as 5G key performance indicators (KPIs) are met and increase PON’s utilization for multiple services by sharing frequency bands and infrastructure. Several intermediate frequencies in Ka-band (26.5 – 40 GHz) are addressed to evaluate the performance of our investigated ARoF Super-PON transmission system for each corresponding frequency in different scenarios of up to 50 km over standard single-mode optical fiber (SMF) link.