Prototyping of 40 GHz Band Orbital Angular Momentum Multiplexing System and Evaluation of Field Wireless Transmission Experiments

We are developing a spatial multiplexing technique based on orbital angular momentum (OAM) that is capable of 1 Tbit/s point-to-point wireless transmissions for the sixth generation mobile communication system. In this paper, we describe a demonstration of 100 Gbit/s wireless transmission over a range of 100 m that used OAM multiplexing of 15 streams with a 1.5 GHz bandwidth (
$39.5-41$
GHz). The OAM modes of this system were generated using a Butler matrix that allows discrete Fourier transform (DFT) operations to be performed in analog circuits. We designed
$8\times 8$
Butler matrices to generate OAM modes by combining hybrid couplers and phase shifters. Since this Butler matrix was connected to 16 element antennas, two
$8\times 8$
Butler matrices were connected to make an
$8\times 16$
matrix. Furthermore, since these inputs were in 7 OAM mode, one port was terminated to create a
$7\times 16$
Butler matrix. It was confirmed that the mode isolation was more than 15 dB in the 1.5 GHz bandwidth. Next, we designed microstrip antennas for a horizontal and vertical polarization uniform circular array (UCA) to radiate the OAM modes. Then, we implemented radio frequency (RF) chains and digital signal processing, including single carrier-frequency domain equalization and adaptive modulation and coding. A transmission experiment conducted in a field line-of-sight environment showed that the system could transmit at 119.45 Gbit/s at a distance of 100 meters, thereby demonstrating the feasibility of wideband OAM transmission in the millimeter-wave band.