T-7.

4
A WDM Architecture for Millimeter-Wave Fiber-Radio Systems Incorporating Baseband Transmission
C. Lim', A. Nirmalathas', D. Novak', R. Waterhouse2, and G. Yoffe3
'AustralianPhotonics Cooperative Research Centre, Photonics Research Laboratory f f Department o Electrical and Electronic Engineering, The University o Melbourne, Parkville VIC 3052, Australia Tel: +61-3-9344-4650 Fax: +61-3-9344-6678 Email: c.lim@ee.rnu.oz.au 2Departmento Communication and Electronic Engineering, R M T University, Melbourne, Australia f 3Australian Photonics Cooperative Research Centre, Optical Fibre Technology Centre, Sydney, Australia

Abstract-We propose and demonstrate a WDM architecture for a fiber-fed millimeter-wave wireless system incorporating baseband data transmission with remote local oscillator (LO) delivery. I INTRODUCTION

Millimeter-wave (mm-wave) radio access networks with optical fiber feed networks are promising solutions for the future distribution of broadband interactive services (> 1 Gb/s). For the distribution of the radio signals over fiber, several options are available including: rf over fiber where the radio signals are transported at the mm-wave frequency to and from the antenna base stations (BS) [ l , 21; IF over fiber where lower frequency subcarriers are used to transport the radio signals with upconversion at the BS [3]; and baseband data transmission [4]. Signal distribution as rf over fiber has the advantage of simpler BSs since the hardware required for frequency up- and downconversion is not needed at the remote sites. However fiber chromatic dispersion can have a severe effect on the achievable signal-to-noise ratio of the recovered signal in such systems [ 5 ] . In contrast, the effect of fiber chromatic dispersion on the distribution of IF and baseband signals is much less pronounced. In addition, transmission of the radio signals as IF and baseband data over fiber enable these techniques to fully exploit the use of mature microwave and digital hardware at the remote antenna sites. Recently, we demonstrated a novel modulation scheme to simultaneously transmit baseband data and the required local oscillator (LO) signal for frequency up- and down-conversion at the remote antenna sites, where the delivery of the LO signal is tolerant to fiber chromatic dispersion effects [4].

We also implemented the modulation scheme in a full-duplex mm-wave fiber-radio system [4]. The use of optical networking concepts and in particular wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) in fiber-radio systems has been proposed and demonstrated [6, 71. Incorporating WDM in fiber-radio systems provides a number of benefits including an increase in capacity, ease of deployment of additional BSs and simpler service or capacity upgrades. WDM also allows a single central office (CO) to simultaneously serve a number of BSs which simplifies the architecture. In this paper we present the first experimental demonstration of an optical fiber-feed network for a mm-wave radio system which incorporates both WDM and baseband data transmission. Our network comprises two WDM channels, each carrying 622 Mb/s of data in the downstream direction and a single channel in the upstream.

I1

OPTIMIZATION OF MODULATION SCHEME

Fig. 1 shows the modulation scheme for

+f- Q-i;tr0& ;

Fiber Grating

ADC Bias

Fig. 1 Schematic diagram showing novel dispersion tolerant modulation scheme for simultaneous transport of baseband data and remote delivery of LO signal to the antenna BS

0-7803-5558-X/99/$10.00 1999 IEEE 0

127

MWP'99 Digest

baseband data transmission and remote LO delivery for mm-wave frequency up- and downconversion at the BS. The key features of this scheme are: the use of a single dual-electrode Mach-Zehner modulator (MZM) to simultaneously transmit digital baseband data and the analog radio frequencies [4] and the delivery of the LO signal in such a way that it is tolerant to the effects of fiber dispersion. The MZM is biased at quadrature and modulates the output of a distributed feedback (DFB) laser. An rf signal at half the LO frequency (fLd2) is applied to one arm of the MZM while the digital baseband data is applied to the other rf terminal. At the modulator output, an optical filter is used to suppress any second order optical sidebands. The laser optical spectrum now comprises a modulated optical carrier and two rf sidebands spaced at fLd2 from the carrier. Upon detection at the BS, the rf spectrum will consist of the recovered baseband data, the modulated rf carrier at fLd2, and the desired LO signal at fm. This LO signal is then used to up-convert the downlink baseband data to the required mm-wave frequency and also down-convert the received uplink mm-wave radio signals to baseband. The performance of the system is highly dependent on the input parameters associated with the MZM in the baseband modulation scheme [8]. These include the input baseband data signal amplitude, the rf power of the applied fLd2 signal, and the MZM bias voltage. Since the mm-wave mixer conversion loss is highly dependent on the LO drive power, the received LO signal power is critical for optimum mixer operation with at least 8 dBm required. Shown in Fig. 2 is the measured bit-error rate (BER) of the recovered data (622 Mb/s) using the modulation scheme in Fig. 1 as a function of input rf power at frequency fLd2 into the MZM with the other modulator parameters kept constant. The results show that the eye
-71
IC,.

-8.2

-9.2

-0.4 -0.3 -0.2 -0.1

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

Detuning voltage (V)

Fig. 3 BER measurements of recovered data versus

MZMDC bias voltage detunedfiom quadrature

closure at lower applied rf powers to the MZM is due to the high conversion loss of the mm-wave mixer at the BS when it is driven inefficiently. The system performance is also sensitive to modulator drift. Fig. 3 shows the measured BER of the received data stream which quantifies the link performance as a function of MZM bias voltage. When the bias voltage is detuned from quadrature, the system performance degrades due to the changing modulation depths of the modulated carrier and the rf sidebands. This directly affects the received baseband data amplitude and LO signal power which in t r un results in a range of bias conditions for optimum performance of the system. To confirm our experimental results we developed an analytical model to simulate the baseband modulation scheme. Fig. 4 shows contour plots of the predicted BERs for various applied rf powers to the MZM, as a function of MZM bias voltage. A zero detuning voltage corresponds to a bias voltage at quadrature. The amplitude of the baseband data was kept constant

-8.51 -9

-1.25
-9.5
19.5 20 20.5 21 21.5 22 22.5

-0.25 0.25 1.25 Detuning voltage (V)

fL0/2 signal t power (dBm) f

Fig. 4 Analytical results of BER contour plots as

a function of MZMinput rfpower and bias detuning voltage

Fig. 2 BER measurements of received data versus

inputhd2 signal rfpower to MZM

128

622 Mbls

I I

I
I I I
I

EDFA b

1
SOS0 coupler
MP

to customer via mm-wave radio link

EDFA
I

10 km

I I

I
I I I I I I I I

17.42 GHZ

MPA

A
I I I

f o customer rm via nun-wave radio link

I
I I
I

I I I

Clock recove and data recovery

I

FG MPA LNA

optical electrical fiber-grating medium power amplifier low noise amplifer

Fig. 5

Experimental setup o mm-wave fibergeed network incorporating WDMand baseband data transmission f

during the simulation. The results in Fig. 4 confirm that there is a range of optimum bias conditions for an acceptable system performance (BER =

I11

WDM FIBER-FEED NETWORK

The modulation scheme shown in Fig. 1 was implemented in a fiber-feed network incorporating a WDM architecture for a mm-wave fiber-radio access system. The experimental setup is shown in Fig. 5. The modulation scheme was located in the downstream path at the central office (CO) in conjunction with two tunable lasers with central frequencies tuned to 1544.3 nm and 1546.3 nm, respectively. The signals applied to the rf terminals of the MZM comprised a 622 Mb/s

data stream and an rf carrier at 17.42 GHz. Both WDM optical carriers are modulated with the same baseband and rf signals. The modulated optical signals are passed into custom-made fiber Bragg gratings (FGs) to suppress second order optical sidebands. The FG is designed with two gratings written in cascade in order to reflect the unwanted second order optical modulation sidebands. Fig. 6 shows the measured transmittance profile of the FG designed for the wavelength of 1544.3 nm which provides more than 25 dB rejection of the unwanted rf sidebands located 34.8 GHz from the carrier. The FG was designed at a slightly lower wavelength to the desired one, and the center wavelength was then strain-tuned to the wavelength used in the experiment. An 8-port WDM multiplexer and demultiplexer pair with 2 nm spacing between each channel were incorporated into the system to accommodate multiple WDM channels in the downlink and simultaneous transmission of the uplink channel. The filtered modulated optical signals are amplified using erbium-doped fiber amplifiers (EDFA) to overcome the high insertion loss of the multiplexer (approximately 10 dB) and fed into the respective ports of the multiplexer. At the remote node (RN) located 10 km from the CO, the WDM channels are demultiplexed, amplified with a low noise EDFA and transported to the respective BSs. A bandpass filter (BPF) after the EDFA removes excess ASE

129

RN for simultaneous full-duplex transmission. In our experiment, a single channel at a wavelength of 1550 nm was used for the upstream channel.

\
-11

3 -2 -1 0 1 Amage Rece~ved Opt~ml Fmer (dBm)

Fig. 7

Measured BER curves for downstream WDM baseband 622 MISdata transmission in a mm-wave fiber-feed network

noise. The WDM channel at 1544.3 nm is detected at BSI where the optical signal is divided and directed to two paths: one path incorporates a 1 GHz photodetector (PD) to recover the baseband data while the other incorporates a 45 GHz PD to detect the mm-wave local oscillator (LO) at 34.8 GHz. The BPF after the PD rejects the unwanted modulated rf carrier at 17.42 GHz. The recovered baseband data is then upconverted to 34.8 GHz and transmitted to the customer. To recover the data, the received mm-wave signal is downconverted to 2.5 GHz and the data recovered using a 2.5 GHz electronic phase-locked loop (PLL). Fig. 7 shows the measured BER curves for the downlink data transmission. For comparison, back-to-back measurements were carried out without the fiber link for a single WDM channel. An optical penalty of = 1 d 3 was then incurred for E 622 Mbh data transmission over 10 km of SMF for one WDM channel. This penalty is due to the ASE noise in the system where two EDFAs are required to provide a sufficient link budget and overcome the high insertion loss of the WDM multiplexer and demultiplexer (total loss = 20 dB). An additional 0.5 dB penalty was observed when the second WDM channel was also transmitted. The incurred penalty is mainly due to crosstalk between the two adjacent channels. The multiplexers provide an isolation of approximately 30 dB between the channels. Using the WDM architecture the system is able to support simultaneous upstream transmission by using another wavelength of the WDM multiplexer and demultiplexer pairs. This allows for a single fiber link between the CO and

CONCLUSIONS We have proposed and demonstrated a WDM based fiber-feed network for a mm-wave fiber-radio system incorporating a baseband modulation scheme. The modulation scheme enables simultaneous transmission of baseband data and remote delivery of LO signal. We have also investigated and optimized the modulation scheme as a function of the MZM operating conditions. We have demonstrated the modulation scheme in a WDM environment with the transmission of two WDM channels each carrying 622 Mb/s data. An optical power penalty of = 0.5 dB was observed with the operation of the second channel. This penalty is mainly due to the multiplexer and demultiplexer crosstalk. REFERENCES
R. Heidemann and G. Veith, mm-wave photonics technologies for Gbit/s-wireless-local-loop,Proc. OECC98, Chiba, Japan, 1998. D. Novak, G.H. Smith, C. Lim, A. Nirmalathas, H.F. Liu, and R.B. Waterhouse, Fiber-fed millimeterwave wireless system, Proc. OECC98, Chiba, Japan, 1998. G.H. Smith and D. Novak, Broadband millimeterwave fiber-radio network incorporating remote uptdownconversion, Proc. IEEE MTT Symp., Baltimore, USA, 1998. C. Lim, A. Nirmalathas, D. Novak, R. Waterhouse, and K. Ghorbani, Full-duplex broadband fiberwireless system incorporating baseband data transmission and a novel dispersion tolerant modulation scheme, Proc. ZMS99, Anaheim, CA, USA, 1999. H. Schmuck, Comparison of optical millimetrewave system concepts with regard to chromatic dispersion, Electron. Lett., vol. 3 1, pp. 1848- 1849, 1995. G.H. Smith, D. Novak, and C. Lim, A millimeterwave full-duplex WDWSCM fiber-radio access network, Proc OFC98,San Jose, CA, USA, 1998. G.H. Smith, D. Novak, and C. Lim, A millimeterwave full-duplex fiber-radio star-tree architecture incorporating WDM and SCM, IEEE Photon. Technol.Lett., vol. 8, pp. 1650-1652, 1998. D.J. Blumenthal, J. Laskar, R. Gaudino, S. Han, M.D. Shell, and M.D. Vaughn, Fiber-optic links supporting baseband data and subcamer-multiplexed control channels and the impact of MMIC photonics/microwave interfaces, IEEE Trans. Micro. Thy. Tech.,vol. 45, pp. 1443-1452, 1997.

130