Analog Radio Over Fiber Fronthaul for High Bandwidth 5G Millimeter-Wave Carrier Aggregated OFDM

The increasing demands for high capacity and ultra-low latency services require to introduce a 5G mobile communications infrastructure based on a centralized radio access network with space division multiplexed optical fronthaul using radio-over-fiber. The transmission of carrier aggregated 5G OFDM signals over an analog radio-over-fiber fronthaul link is experimentally demonstrated. Multi-Gbit/s data rates are achieved in limited bandwidth, with BER below the 25% overhead FEC limit after millimeter-wave wireless transmission over 2.2 m.