A Single-Photodiode Framework for the Co-Detection of Hybrid Digital and Analog Radio-Over-Fiber Signals

The continuous advancement of wireless mobile communication necessitates an increase in the allocated frequency bands for each generation. Consequently, higher frequency photodiodes are required in analog radio-over-fiber (ARoF) fronthaul solutions. However, the limited available bandwidth in the wireless domain poses challenges to efficiently utilize the capacity of these photodiodes. To overcome this obstacle, this paper explores the utilization of a single-photodiode base station configuration to enable hybrid digital radio-over-fiber (DRoF) and ARoF transmission. Furthermore, it proposes a straightforward signal processing approach to effectively separate the distinct analog and digital radio-over-fiber signals. To evaluate the feasibility of the proposed signal processing method, software simulations were conducted. The initial findings indicate that the combination of a single-photodiode base station configuration and the suggested signal processing approach holds promise for hybrid digital and analog radio-over-fiber systems. It demonstrates the potential to minimize the number of required photodiodes, thus improving efficiency in the context of limited available bandwidth.