Performance analysis of IEEE 802.16e WiMAX Radio-over-fiber distributed antenna system

Interest in radio-over-fiber (RoF) networks has been gaining increasing popularity for RF distribution networks. This paper examines link transmission quality over RoF of the WiMax signal between the base station and RAU in both downlink and uplink instances experimentally. EVM results are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of a fiber link for RF signal distribution. Downlink EVM performance was measured to be better than 3.1% for a RF power range of between -3 dBm to 10 dBm over 5 km RoF. Uplink EVM with AGC was better than 3.1% for an RF input signal range between -70 dBm to -45 dBm over 5 km RoF.