Photonics Breakthroughs 2024: Advances in B5G Radio-Power Over Fiber Fronthaul

Specific demands of providing power to equipment in remote areas or hazardous environments, including populated areas, requiring high throughputs and ultra-low latency in beyond 5G (B5G) mobile communications that are based on Radio over Fiber (RoF) have made Power over Fiber (PoF) attractive. This paper reviews a breakthrough of a long-distance hollow core fiber (HCF) fronthaul (up to 11.1 km) able to meet the requirements of B5G optical mobile networks, where the transmission medium is common to both 5G NR and PoF signals. This work is placed in context and compared with results provided by other authors, showing the relevance of the outcomes and subsequent future possibilities. It also creates a discussion in which the performance of other fiber technologies may be compared, as new B5G fronthauls with special attention paid to transmission in a single fiber, avoiding noise transfer between high power laser PoF source and 5G-NR data that affects the signal quality. PoF energy delivery efficiencies are also analyzed, achieving up to 9.9 % efficiency (from launched optical power to electrical power on the load) for a 3.1 km HCF and 0.9 % for a 11.1 km HCF. The PoF signal is used to supply a Bluetooth Low-Energy load.