Photonic Wireless Links for 5G Broadband Access Networks

This paper presents a real-time demonstration of all-optical broadband photonic wireless downlink and uplink transmissions at the K-band with data rates of 16-Gb/s and 4 to 12-Gb/s, respectively. The experimental configuration is comprised of optical fiber and RF wireless channel with a successful transmission and detection of 4 GHz 16-quadrature amplitude modulated (QAM) wireless signals at 25 GHz over 2-m of wireless distance in the downlink using photonic heterodyning of a low noise monolithic quantum dash (QD) passively mode-locked laser (MLL), whereas in the uplink, a single wavelength laser is employed together with an optical intensity modulator to transmit 4/16/64-QAM signals with 2 GHz bandwidth. For both downlink and uplink, error vector magnitude (EVM) of lower than the standard requirements of 17.5%, 12.5% and 8% is achieved for 4, 16, and 64-QAM signals, respectively.