A novel optical single-sideband frequency translation technique for transmission of wireless MIMO signals over fiber-wireless system

The fiber-wireless (FiWi) access network is a powerful hybrid architecture of optical backhaul and wireless front-end to support high data rates and throughput with minimal time delay. By using radio over fiber (ROF) technique, the optical fiber is well adapted to propagate multiple wireless services having different carrier frequencies. However, multiple wireless signals which have the same carrier frequency cannot propagate over a single optical fiber on the same wavelength, such as multi-input multi-output (MIMO) signals. A novel optical single-sideband frequency translation technique is designed and simulated to solve this problem. 240 Mb/s 802.11n MIMO signals are proposed to transport over FiWi system using the proposed approach at 2.4 GHz and 5.0 GHz carrier frequencies. The crosstalk between MIMO signals with the same carrier frequency is excluded, since each MIMO signal is carried on a specific optical wavelength. Error vector magnitude (EVM) values of −29.83 dB (for 2.4 GHz) and −28.41 dB (for 5.0 GHz) have been achieved for bit error rate (BER) 10−5 in the proposed FiWi system.

► FiWi system is proposed to transmit many wireless MIMO signals by a novel method.
► The proposed system transmits 240 Mb/s 64 QAM two wireless MIMO signals over fiber.
► The wireless signals are transmitted over 20 km fiber and 100 m 2×2 MIMO channel.
► The crosstalk between MIMO signals with the same carrier frequency is excluded.
► EVMs of −29.83 dB (for 2.4 GHz) and −28.41 dB (for 5.0 GHz) have been achieved.