Adaptive photonic-assisted M
2
-QAM millimeter-wave
synthesis in multi-antenna
radio-over-fiber system using M-ASK modulation
Qi Zhang,
1,
* Jianjun Yu,
2,3
Xinying Li,
2
and Xiangjun Xin
1
1
School of Electronic Engineering, State Key Laboratory of Information Photonics and Optical Communications,
Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Beijing 100876, China
2
The Department of Communication Science and Engineering, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China
3
ZTE (TX) USA, New Jersey 07960, USA
*Corresponding author: zhangqi@bupt.edu.cn
Received July 23, 2014; revised September 9, 2014; accepted September 19, 2014;
posted September 24, 2014 (Doc. ID 217390); published October 16, 2014
A novel method for generating an adaptive photonic-assisted M
2
-quadrature amplitude modulation (M
2
-QAM)
millimeter-wave signal in a multiantenna radio-over-fiber system using M-ray amplitude-shift keying (M-ASK)
modulation is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. It takes full advantage of high-density small cells with-
out introducing additional complexity into remote antenna units (RAUs) or mobile users. The 4, 8, and 12 Gb/s
4QAM millimeter-wave signals are obtained from two independent 2, 4, and 6 Gb/s on–off-keying 40 GHz channels,
respectively. The experimental results show that a double bit rate can be received without additional digital signal
processing in RAUs and mobile users. The results, including the constellation diagrams and bit error rate, show that
the transmitted signals are received successfully. © 2014 Optical Society of America
OCIS codes: (060.5625) Radio frequency photonics; (060.2360) Fiber optics links and subsystems.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1364/OL.39.006106
With the rapid growth of high-bandwidth multimedia in-
teractive services and applications, wireless communica-
tion should meet the needs for much higher system
capacity and coverage. In the future, wireless data capac-
ity in excess of multiple gigabits per second will be nec-
essary. Radio-over-fiber (RoF) networks have emerged as
a new and promising communication paradigm for deliv-
ering broadband wireless access services at the millimeter
(mm)-waveband relying on the synergy between fixed
optical and mobile mm-waveband technologies [
1]. RoF
signal distribution technology is an attractive option for
extending the reach and coverage of broadband mm-wave
systems due to the extremely large signal bandwidth and
extremely low loss that optical fiber can offer.
On the other hand, with exploding demands for mobile
broadband services and the emergence of new high-
capacity mobile devices and data-intensive applications,
mobile networks have to continuously evolve to meet
capacity and coverage needs with the latest technological
capabilities. Long-term evolution-advanced (LTE-A) has
been introduced by the 3rd Generation Partnership
Project (3GPP) to fulfill the requirements for International
Mobile Telecommunications-Advanced (IMT-advanced)
for next-generation cellular systems [
2]. In LTE-A sys-
tems, coordinated multipoint (CoMP) transmission is
adopted to save transmission power, enlarge the coverage
of high data rates, enhance cell-edge throughput, and/or
increase overall system throughput [
3]. CoMP transmis-
sion means the transmission is carried out among multiple
geographically separated transmission nodes that make
up a CoMP cooperating set.
To facilitate cooperative signal processing in CoMP,
adjacent base stations are required to exchange large
volumes of information. With an increasing number of
antennas at the transmitter and/or receiver, a multiple-
input–multiple-output (MIMO) wireless communication
network can not only increase the data rate, but can also
improve system reliability through spatial diversity.
Recently, several studies regarding MIMO technology for
mm-waveband RoF systems have been reported [
4–9].
The MIMO technology at these new bands is under active
research, as it has great potential to further increase data
rate and/or improve signal quality.
In order to make full use of high-density small cells
without introducing additional complexity into remote
access units (RAUs) and for mobile users, a novel
adaptive photonic-assisted M
2
-ary quadrature amplitude
modulation (M
2
-QAM) synthesis method is proposed.
This method is based on the M-ary amplitude shift keying
(M-ASK) modulation for a user with two transmitting
RAUs. Double bit rate can be received without additional
digital signal processing (DSP) on the mobile user’s side.
4, 8, and 12 Gb/s 4QAM mm-wave signals from two inde-
pendent 2, 4, and 6 Gb/s on– off-keying (OOK) 40 GHz
channels are experimentally demonstrated.
The schematic diagram of the proposed adaptive
photonic-assisted M
2
-QAM mm-wave signal generation
in multi-antenna RoF system using M-ASK modulation
is shown in Fig.
1. The continuous wave (CW) optical
Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of the proposed cooperative multi-
antenna RoF system. CW, continuous wave; IM, intensity
modulator; ODL, optical delay line; EDFA, erbium-doped fiber
amplifier; SMF, single-mode fiber; EA, electrical amplifier; PD,
photodetector.
6106 OPTICS LETTERS / Vol. 39, No. 21 / November 1, 2014
0146-9592/14/216106-04$15.00/0 © 2014 Optical Society of America