Radio-over-Fiber Technology

for Wireless Communication

Services

Oct. 13, 2005

Hoon Kim
Samsung Electronics
hoonkim@ieee.org
 Outline

1. Introduction

2. Current Technologies

9 Analog transmission over fiber

9 Digital transmission over fiber

9 Analog transmission over HFC

3. Emerging technologies

4. Conclusion
Frequencies for Broadband Radio
0.8 GHz Cellular, 2G systems
1.8 GHz 2G systems
2 GHz UMTS/3G systems
2.4 GHz Wireless LANs (IEEE 802.11b/g)
2.6 GHz S-DMB
3.4 GHz 4G systems (TBD)
5 GHz Wireless LANs (IEEE 802.11a)
18/19 GHz Indoor wireless LANs
28 GHz Fixed wireless access (LMDS)
38 GHz Fixed wireless access, Pico cellular
58 GHz Indoor wireless LANs
62-66 GHz Mobile
 Optical Fiber-Based Wireless
Communication Systems

Advantages
9 Modulation format transparent
9 Compact and reliable
9 Centralized control of electronic circuitry
9 Able to transport long distance with high fidelity

Disadvantages BTS

9 Needs optical fibers

9 High cost on uplink transmitters

BTS: Base transceiver station

 Approaches
1. Analog transmission over fiber
9 SCM technology (IF over fiber or RF over fiber)

2. Digital transmission over fiber

9 Analog-to-Digital/Digital-to-Analog conversion

3. Analog transmission over HFC network

9 SCM technology
 Major Applications

1. Elimination of the ‘dead-zone’

9 Repeater based on optical transport systems

2. Remote antenna

9 Fiber-To-The-Antenna (FTTA) systems

3. Capacity enhancement

9 Microcell, picocell systems

 Optical Links for ‘Dead-Zones’
Man-made obstacles Secluded places

fiber

Mountainous area BTS

Tunnel
 FTTA (Fiber-To-The-Antenna)

Advantages
9 Low loss
9 Small size
9 Light weight
9 Immune to lightening strikes and electrical discharge
9 Future-proof: protocol and bit-rate transparent

Coaxial cable loss (@1.8 GHz)

Cable
1/2 ″ 7/8 ″ 1+5/8 ″
diameter
Loss
10.6 dB 5.9 dB 3.7 dB
(/100 m)

Picture source: Erricson

 Macrocellular Systems

MSC

BTS

T1/E
Macrocell 1

Antenna tower BSC

E1
T1/
Local
BTS Exchange
Carrier
Radius: 1~3 km

Macrocell BTS: Base transceiver station

BSC: Base station controller
MSC: Mobile switching center
BTS Site
 Base Transceiver Station

I
Up PA
DUC
Conv.
Q
BSC

Duplexer
T1/E1 Modem
/Diplexer
I
Down LNA
DDC
Conv.
Q

DUC: Digital Up-Converter DDC: Digital Down-Converter

PA: Power Amplifier LNA: Low-Noise Amplifier
BSC: Base Station Controller
 Cell Size Should be Smaller

Increased carrier Higher capacity is

frequency suffers required
from more
propagation loss

Small Cell

Increased concern
Battery consumption about the effects of
is always a critical electro-magnetic
issue wave on human body
 Microcellular Systems

Microcell
(radius : ~ 300 m)
RBS
RBS

O/E
RBS RBS
E/O RBS

Remote
Base RBS
Station
conventional cell
(radius : 1- 2 km)
to exchange
 System Configuration: Example

Source: David Wake, Microwave Photonics Inc.

Remote Base Station (RBS)
Basic configuration

O/E

Diplexer
W
D
fiber M E/O

RBS

Major advantages
ƒ Format transparency
ƒ Small size
ƒ Light weight
ƒ High reliability
 FoMiCell: Remote Base Station

Power
Supply

58 cm
E/O & O/E

Duplexer Processor
& Filter Frequency
High Power Converter
Amplifier
(15 Watt/3 FAs)

cm
37 cm

45
OFC/IOOC, paper PD13, 1999
 Application Example

Sydney Olympic Games

9 Tekmar BriteCell™

9 In-building and external pico-cell

9 Multi-operator system (3 GSM operators)

9 Multi-standard radio (900/1800 MHz GSM)

9 >500 Remote antenna units

9 0.8 x 1.8 km coverage

9 Low RF power distributed antenna system

9 Dynamic allocation of network capacity

9 500,000 wireless calls on the opening day

Source: David Wake, Microwave Photonics Inc.

Wireless Signal Transport Using SCM
Technology

Central Base Station PD

C LD
o LD
n LD
t LD
r LD
o PD
PD
l PD z
l PD z
e z
r

PD

LD

Major merits Remote Base Station

9 Minimize the complexity of the RBSs • Ta-Shing Chu, AT&T, 1991

• J. Namiki, NEC, 1993
 SCM Lightwave Systems
f1

Data × BPF fi

combiner
×
zzz
zzz

LD PD Data
fN

Data × BPF

Transmitter Fiber Receiver

LD linearity Multipath interference Linearity of preamplifier

• Spatial hole burning Dispersion Thermal noise
• Nonlinear current leakage SBS Shot noise
• Slipping distortion SPM
• Nonlinear coupling of gain and optical power
RIN
• Intensity noise
• Mode partition noise
• Mode hoping noise
 Spurious-Free Dynamic Range
Considerations

Two strong
carriers

SFDR = ΔPr + CNRrequired − ΔG

Δ Pr
ΔPr: Power difference
One weak carrier CNRrequired : Required CNR
Noise Intermod. Comp. ΔG: Handset power control
 Spurious-Free Dynamic Range
Requirements (I)
Unit: dB-Hz2/3
Indoor/outdoor with Outdoor, with
Indoor, no
Applications some non-line-of congested
obstructions
sight obstructions obstructions

IS-136 58~73 98~108

GSM/DCS1800 56~71 96~106

PDC 59~74 99~109

PHS 83~98 103~118

DECT 74~89 94~109

CT-2 73~88 94~108

W. I. Way, Broadband hybrid fiber/coax access system technologies, 1999

 Spurious-Free Dynamic Range
Requirements (II)
Unit: dB-Hz2/3

Applications SFDR requirement

GSM (900 MHz, indoor) 100

GSM (900 MHz, outdoor) 106
PCS (1900 MHz) 72-83
AMPS (900 MHz, single antenna) 91
AMPS (900 MHz, multiple antennas) 80
GSM (1~2 GHz, 3-band) 105
HiperLan (5 GHz) 94
IEEE 802.11a (5 GHz) 94
IEEE 802.11b (2.4 GHz) 94

A. Larsson, NEFERTITI Workshop, 2005

Current Technologies: IF over SMF/MMF
Type Example Company Comments
IF over LGCell LGC Wireless Added complexity
SMF/MMF (cost) at remote unit.

Can use pre-installed

fiber

Antenna Unit

Central Hub Remote Hub

RF IF
BTS LD PD
SMF/MMF UTP

R. Penty, NEFERTITI Workshop, 2005

 Current Technologies: RF over SMF
Type Example Company Comments
RF over BriteCell Andrew Simple remote unit but
SMF FiberDAS Remec relatively expensive
optics.

Uses specially installed

fiber.

Antenna Unit

Central Hub Remote Hub

RF
BTS LD PD
SMF Coax

R. Penty, NEFERTITI Workshop, 2005

Issue in Wireless Signal Transport
Systems Using SCM Technology

1. Optical fiber should be installed

2. Mostly point-to-point architecture

3. Cost issues on upstream transmitters

Wireless Signal Transport using Digital
Transmission Technology
RF-digital Optical
Transmitters Combiner
converter transmitter

MTSO WDM

Digital-RF Optical
Receivers Splitter
converter receiver

Optical Digital-RF
Receiver converter

WDM Duplexer

Optical RF-digital
Transmitter converter

Major merits
9 High performance
9 Use of mature digital transport technology
9 Compatible with multimode fiber infrastructure
 Analog-to-Digital Converter
15
14
13
12
11
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0

Aperture jitter

3 Quantization 10
error
2 9

1 8
 Signal-to-Noise Ratio
⎛ f ⎞
SNR = 6.02 B + 1.76 + 10 log10 ⎜⎜ s ⎟⎟ − 20 log10 ( N ) (dB )
⎝ 2 f max ⎠
≈ 6 B − 20 log10 ( N ) (dB )

B: number of bits of resolution

fs: sampling frequency
fmax: maximum frequency of the input analog signal
N: number of RF carriers

⎛ 1 ⎞
SNR jitter = 20 log10 ⎜⎜ ⎟⎟
⎝ 2πf max t a ⎠

ta: aperture jitter of the ADC

 Analog vs. Digital Transport

Sych loss

Digital transport Quantization

noise-dominant
Performance

An
al
og
tr
an
sp
o rt

Distance
Current Technologies: Digital over SMF/MMF

Type Example Company Comments

Digital over Digivance ADC Added complexity (cost) at
SMF/MMF remote unit.

Mature digital technology

Can use pre-installed fiber

Remote Antenna Unit

Central Hub

RF IF
BTS A/D LD PD D/A
SMF/MMF
Sync
Issues of Wireless Signal Transport
Systems Using Digital Transmission
Technology

1. Cost issues of A/D and D/A converters

2. Clock recovery is required at the receivers

3. Frequency converters are typically required

4. Overheads of digitized signals

 Wireless Signals Over HFC

Fiber
Head End
Fiber node

Major merits
9 Use of the existing HFC networks
 Coaxial Cable Transmission
Characteristics Affecting Wireless
Access
1. Interference between existing wireline signals and
wireless signals

2. Multiple antenna noise

3. Transmission delay between any two mBSs

4. Available cable spectra (<1 GHz)

5. Funneling ingress and impulse noise

6. Multiple micro-reflections in the coaxial cable plant

 Emerging Technologies:
EAM-based Transceiver
Central Site RAU

Laser

E
A
M

PD

9 Acts as photodiode for downlink 9 Relatively poor performance

either as photodiode or modulator
9 Acts as modulator for uplink
9 Limited coverage when operating
9 Can operate using FDD or TDD
in passive mode
9 Can operate in passive mode

• D. Wake et al., Electron. Lett., 1997 • Microwave Photonics Inc.

 Emerging Technologies: WDM
9 Efficient usage of fiber (ring, bus, double star architectures)
9 Can be deployed over a WDM-PON
9 Flexible service provision

BS BS BS
λ1
λ1 λ2
λ2 BS

n
λ
…
RN RN

3,
λ
λn

2,
λ
1,
BS

λ
Central Central
λ1, λ2, λ3, … λn
Office Office λ1 BS

λ2 BS
RN RN
λn
λn λn-1
BS
BS BS
 Emerging Technologies: MMW over Fiber
9 Reduced cell coverage makes this technology attractive for this application.
9 Enormous bandwidth of optical fiber suitable for MMW signal transport.
9 Dispersion-induced signal fading – SSB transmission.

• CRL, Japan
Dispersion-Induced Signal Fading
f1

Dispersive medium

Normalized Optical Power

0 2 4 6 8
Fiber Length (km)
Single Side-Band (SSB) Modulation
Hilbert
Transform 90° shift
f1
MZ
CW modulator
λ
RF signal
(f1)

Optical
Filtering
RF signal
(f1)
f1

Intensity Optical
CW
modulator filter
λ
 Conclusions
™ Merging of photonic and radio technologies
- Fiber-radio as a last mile solution.
- Centralized control of electronic equipment is the main
advantage of fiber-radio technology.
- Cost is the paramount issue for the wide deployment of this
technology.

™ Major Issues
- Cost-effective upstream transport.
- Opto-electronic interfaces.
- Integration of photonic and radio components.