Building Extended-Reach Radio-over-Fiber Links by Exploiting Optical Frequency Multiplication's Dispersion Tolerance

The ability of optical frequency multiplication (OFM) to combat severe chromatic dispersion-induced fading of the remotely delivered RF signals, which occurs in radio-over-fiber systems employing intensity modulation with direct detection (IMDD) was investigated. A theoretical model, system simulations, and laboratory experiments, were used to assess the impact of chromatic dispersion on the OFM system. The OFM system showed no fading, making it possible to transmit pure high-frequency signals (e.g. 22.2 GHz) over variable lengths up-to 72 km of dispersive fiber. This was at least 15 times longer than the maximum link length of a corresponding IMDD system.