Design and Analysis of Secure RoF Based Communication in 5G Fronthaul

An analytical study is presented in this paper related to the emerging 5G network based on radio over fiber communication. Security of 5G front haul is ensured by using chaos in optical domain. Optical chaos generated by semiconductor laser is used for this purpose. Optical fiber is chosen to provide high bandwidth and minimum latency whereas chaos masking technique is used to implement the security features. In this work, a Radio over fiber (RoF) communication system is designed in licensed version of Optisystem software v.14.0 in which radio frequency signal is modulated on optical signal by using laser and Mach-Zehnder modulator (MZM). Chaos generation is represented by rate equations of laser. Message signal is secured by hiding it in the chaotic carrier produced by semiconductor laser. After transmission the original signal is retrieved through perfect synchronization between transmitter and receiver, thus maximizing not only Q-factor but reduced bit error rate (BER) as well. System performance is evaluated by using different lengths of optical fiber and varying laser power.