A new bidirectional analog radio over fiber transmission for 5G millimeter wave communication systems

In this paper, a low-cost mobile fronthaul design based on analog radio over fiber (ARoF) transmission is proposed for 5G millimeter wave communication systems. Through the adoption of a simple centralized comb source that produce narrowly spaced coherent flat optical carriers compatible with ultra-dense wavelength division multiplexing passive optical network (UDWDM-PON) grid, broadband wireless multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) signals have been successfully delivered with error-free transmission (bit error rate of 10
^–9
) over bidirectional fiber link of 22 km by means of using high spectral efficient data modulation called modified duobinary. The simulating spectral analysis results disclosed the feasibility and validity of the proposed system. Furthermore, high quality eye diagrams were obtained within quite reasonable optical power sensitivities confirmed the transmission reliability and also indicated the good power efficiency of the proposed system.