Bidirectional millimeter-wave radio-over-fiber system based on photodiode mixing and optical heterodyning

We demonstrate a bidirectional millimeter-wave (mmW) radio-over-fiber system based on the use of a p-i-n photodiode (PD) biased in the nonlinear regime. Since frequency down-conversion and photodetection are carried out by a single photodiode, the base station (BS) architecture is simplified. Down-link transmission employs an optical heterodyning technique for mmW generation and remote local oscillator (LO) delivery to BSs. The up-link scheme uses the electrical port of the PD as an input for optoelectronic mixing with the remotely delivered LO. Up-link and down-link have been successfully demonstrated for 397 Mbps and 794 Mbps binary phase-shift keying complying with the 60 GHz ECMA 387 standard. Error vector magnitude measurements and theoretical analysis are discussed as regards optimal PD bias conditions. It is shown that PD can be used in this bidirectional system without any switching of the PD bias.