Multi-User V-Band Uplink Using a Massive MIMO Antenna and a Fiber-Wireless IFoF Fronthaul for 5G mmWave Small-Cells

We experimentally demonstrate a multi-user Fiber Wireless IFoF/mmWave uplink comprising a 32-element 60 GHz Phased Array Antenna (PAA) and 10 km of fiber for 5G fronthaul networks, supporting beamsteering within a 120° sector and 0.6 Gb/s uplink capacity within a 5 dB bandwidth of 2 GHz. The flexibility of the link is highlighted in two 3-user scenarios with 0.6 Gb/s uplink traffic: A Frequency Division Multiplexing (FDM) scheme with the PAA receiving isotropically at different frequencies and a Spatial Division Multiplexing (SDM) scheme where the same V-band frequency is re-used by all three users but are selectively received by the PAA using beamsteering. Error-free transmission with 100 Mbaud QPSK per user is demonstrated for both cases, forming the first comparison of FDM and SDM towards multi-user 5G mmWave/IFoF networks.