Overcoming Chromatic-Dispersion-Induced Power Fading in ROF Links Employing Parallel Modulators

This letter presents a chromatic dispersion (CD) compensation scheme using parallel electro-optic phase and intensity modulators suitable for long-reach radio-over-fiber links. By properly adjusting the optical power and the time delay between the two modulated signals, the power fading aroused by the CD is adequately compensated over a wide operating bandwidth of 0-18 GHz over a 34-km single-mode fiber (SMF). Compared with a double sideband (DSB) modulated link, an enhancement of up to 31 dB·Hz
^2/3
in the spur-free dynamic range for a 9.5-GHz signal is obtained. Furthermore, a bit-error rate of 10
^-10
is obtained when a 9.5-GHz carrier loading 2-Gb/s pseudorandom bit sequence is transmitted over the dispersive link, which is not achievable for the DSB modulated link.