WDM-PON Architecture for Radio over Fiber

Applications
Ferney Orlando Amaya F., Ana Mara Crdenas Soto

John Jairo Arango, Gerardo Salvador Miranda

GIDATI Research Group

Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana
Medelln-Colombia

GITA Research Group

Universidad de Antioquia
Medelln-Colombia

AbstractA RoF solution for the transport of millimetric waves

based on the wavelength division multiplexing-passive optical
network (WDM-PON) architecture is presented. Distributed
Raman amplification (DRA) is used to guarantee a high optical
value level at the receiver. Simulations were done to calculate the
required optical pump power.
Keywords-radio over fiber (RoF), millimetric waves, passive
optical network (PON), Raman amplification

I.

However, the intensity modulation of the optical carrier

provides lower cost and lower complexity in the design of the
receiver. Previous works have been used intensity modulation
to transmit a 156 Mb/s-DPSK (Differential Phase Shift Keying)
60 GHz-band wave signal, over 85 km-long standard fiber,
achieving a BER of 10-9 at the optical received power of -7.0
dBm [4].
Fig. 1 presents an application scenario of RoF, supporting
broadband transmission to mobile and fixed users using WDM.

INTRODUCTION

The telecommunication industry has been evolving rapidly

in the last years motivated by the increasing demand of fixed
and mobile users. Wireless communication technologies such
as IEEE 802.16 WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for
Microwave Access) offers to the final users data bit rates
between 1 to 5 Mbps; LMDS (Local Multipoint Distribution
Service) uses frequency bands higher than 28 GHz supporting
up to 38 Mbps per cell [1].
One of the strategies to improve the capacity of the wireless
systems is to increase the working frequency and to reduce the
cells size, providing higher capacity to the end users. The
millimetric-wave band around 60 GHz is of special interest due
to the high attenuation. This allows small size cells for shortrange (< 1 km) communications in outdoor environments and
small range (< 50 m) communications in indoor environments
[2]. Examples of applications employing millimetric waves are
IEEE 802.15.3 UWB (Ultra Wide Band) with data transfers up
to 480 Mbps [1] and the Mobile Broadband System (MBS) [1].
The next generation access networks must allow mobility
and high capacity deploying optical fiber deeper in the access
networks. The Radio over fiber (RoF) technology, combines
radio communications devices with the optical communications
for the transport of radio frequency (RF) signals through the
fiber optic.
RoF is a suitable technology for the transport of millimetric
waves, allowing higher reach, higher capacity, lower
electromagnetic interference and higher immunity to the
atmospheric conditions compared with the transport employing
the free space. In RoF the electrical signal may modulate the
intensity or the phase of the optical carrier. The employment of
optical phase modulation with coherent receivers allows higher
capacity than the use of optical intensity modulation [3].

Central office
3
Fiber optic WDM ring
1

Home and busines users

High speed wireless

access

Figure 1. Application scenario of the RoF technology.

The fiber optic infrastructure for the support of RoF must

provide high capacity and reliability. In this case, WDM-PON
is the main alternative to support the requirements of the future
users and services, offering high bandwidth and protocol
transparency [5]. Optical amplification is required to extend the
reach and to increase the power levels in the system.
In this work, we present a RoF solution for the transport of
millimetric waves based on the WDM-PON architecture.
Distributed Raman amplification (DRA) is used to guarantee a
high optical value level at the receiver in order to satisfy the
required sensitivity. Additionally, the DRA allows bidirectional
transmission with low noise figure [6].
In Section II we present the architecture of a RoF
application and the main characteristics of the WDM-PON
architecture. Section III presents the proposed architecture and
finally the conclusions are presented.

II.

MILLIMETRIC WAVES THROUGH THE FIBER OPTIC

A. Radio over Fiber

Fig. 2 depicts the architecture of a RoF link based on
optical intensity modulation. The control station (CS)
modulates and multiplexes the RF in the electrical domain and
the composite signal is modulated optically to transmit the
signal through the fiber optic in a subcarrier multiplexing
(SCM) scheme.

The main advantage of the SSB method to minimize the

dispersion is because the generation of SSB may be done in
the optical modulation process employing the MZM [7]. In
this case a MZM with two arms is employed, the first arm is
supplied with the RF signal and the second arm is supplied
with the signal phase shifted 90 degrees (see Fig. 3).

Figure 3. Optical SSB employing MZM.

The base station (BS) realizes the optic to electric

conversion employing a photodiode and the signal goes
directly to the antenna without use frequency converter
components, decreasing the complexity of the BS. The optical
circulator is used to separate the downlink and uplink channels.
The RF signal is transmitted from the BS to the mobile
users in a point-to-multipoint link. The receiver of the final
user process the RF signal.

1
OLT

Fiber optic
1, 2, N

ONU

2
AWG

Figure 2. RoF link architecture.

B. WDM-PON architecture and Raman amplification

WDM-PON is the main alternative to support the
requirements of the future users and services. The main
components of the WDM-PON architecture are depicted in Fig.
4.

.
.

Remote
node

In the uplink channel, the BS combines the incoming

signals from the mobile users and modulates the intensity of an
optical carrier.

WDM optical link

Single wavelength optical link

For the millimetric wave transport case, the millimetric

signal may be generated with external modulation employing a
Mach-Zehnder modulator (MZM) [7].

Figure 4. Architecture of a next generation optical access network.

The main impairments in the propagation of signals though

the optical fiber are the nonlinear distortion, the nonlinearities,
the polarization mode dispersion (PMD) and the chromatic
dispersion. The nonlinear distortion is due to the harmonic
generation in the optical modulation process and some
approaches to minimize this effect have been proposed [7].

The WDM-PON topology shares the optical line terminal

(OLT), located in the local exchange, over several optical
network units (ONUs) located in the customer premises. The
OLT generates several wavelengths, one wavelength per ONU.
An arrayed-waveguide grating (AWG) is placed in the remote
node (RN) to separate the wavelengths of each ONU.

The employment of dispersion compensating fibers [7].

Several alternatives of low-cost WDM light sources have

been proposed. (1) The employment of a Fabry-Perot laser
diode (FP-LD) injected by an external spectrum to produce a
single mode laser [5]. (2) The usage of a RSOA (Reflective
Semiconductor Optical Amplifier) or a reflective EAM (Electro
Absorption Modulator) at the ONU, which removes the
downstream data and re-modulates the input light with the
upstream data [5].

Usage of an optical phase conjugator in the middle of

the link [7].

In order to compensate for fiber losses and increase the

power in the optical link, DRA may be employed. Equation (1)

Transmission in single side band (SSB) [4].

The chromatic dispersion limits the maximum reach and is

the main impairment in the transport of millimetric signals
through the fiber optic. The maximum reach decreases with the
dispersion and the electrical carrier frequency of the signal [7].
Several compensation dispersion methods have been proposed :

allows calculate the Raman gain over the power signal P ( z , t )

when N pump signals

PPk ( z , t ) (k = 1N) are employed.

N
dP
= P + P g k PPk ( z , t ) .
dz
k =1

(1)

Where is the fiber optic attenuation coefficient and

g k is the effective Raman gain coefficient between the signal
and the k-pump signal [6]. The Runge Kuta algorithm may be
used to solve Equation (1) [8].
III.

ROF APPLICATION BASED ON WDM-PON

In this section the architecture for wireless broadband

communications is presented. The architecture support RoF
applications that require the transport of millimetric waves
though the fiber optic. The CS is located in a centralized place
and the BS is located up to 20 km of distance. A SCM DPSK
60 GHz-wave signal is employed. The proposed architecture is
depicted in Fig. 5.

For the upstream channel, in the BS the optical transmitter

modulates the signal in SSB employing a MZ in a similar way
than in the CS. The optical signal is demultiplexed and detected
in the CS.
The power budget for the CS is presented in Table 1. The
values employed are typical commercial values. The optical
power at the output of the CS is approximately -9 dBm.
TABLE I.

POWER BUDGET FOR THE CS.

Output power laser

Polarization controller and MZ insertion
losses
DWDM multiplexer insertion loss
Circulator and combiner insertion losses
Optical power at the output of the CS

10 dBm
10 dB
5 dB
4 dB
-9 dBm

The power budget for the BS and the RN are presented in

Table 2. In agree with [4], in order to obtain a BER of 10-9, the
optical received power must be -7.0 dBm.
The required optical power at the input of the RN is
approximately -0.5 dBm.
TABLE II.

POWER BUDGET FOR THE BS AND RN

Receiver sensitivity
AWG insertion loss
Circulator and combiner insertion losses
Optical power required at the input of the
RN

-7 dBm
2.5 dB
4 dB
-0.5 dBm

DRA allows extending the reach of the fiber optic

satisfying the high sensitivity of the optical receiver. Pump
lasers are located in the CS and in the RN. The maximum
Raman amplification at 1550 nm is obtained when a pump
laser at 1462 nm is employed.
In order to obtain the required value of the pump power, a
simulation of the Equation (1) employing an iterative method
was done. In this case, bidirectional Raman amplification with
pump powers of 550 mW in the CS and RN are required.
Assuming a flat gain of the DRA over the signal spectrum
range, Fig. 6 presents the average optical power for one power
signal at 1550 nm. The average optical power of the pump
signals at 1462 nm, also are presented in Fig. 6.

Figure 5. Proposed RoF architecture based on WDM-PON.

In the CS the RF channels are multiplexed in the electrical

domain and then an optical signal is intensity modulated with a
MZM. A laser in the C band is employed. The MZM
modulates the signal in SSB to minimize the dispersion effect.
The polarization controller (PC) maximizes the output power
because the modulation with a MZ is polarization dependent.
The WDM multiplexer combines the different wavelengths; a
wavelength per BS is used. In the RN the AWG selects the
wavelength of each BS.

architecture. DRA was used to satisfy the required sensitivity in

the receiver and allowing bidirectional transmission. The
required optical pump power of the DRA was calculated by
simulations.

Signal power (mW)

1
0.8
0.6

REFERENCES

0.4

[1]

0.2

Forward and backard pump

power (mW)

[2]
0
0
600

10

15

20

500

[3]

[4]

400
300

[5]

200

[6]

100
0
0

[7]
5

10

15

20

Fiber length (km)

IV. DISCUSION AND CONCLUSIONS
In this paper we have presented a RoF solution for the
transport of millimetric waves based on the WDM-PON

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