A Full-Duplex Radio-Over-Fiber Link Based on a Dual-Polarization Mach-Zehnder Modulator

• Published in: IEEE photonics technology letters Vol. 28; no. 8; pp. 852 - 855
• Main Authors: Tang, Zhenzhou, Pan, Shilong
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 15-04-2016; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Adaptive optics; dual-polarization modulator; full duplex; microwave photonics; Optical fiber communication; Optical fibers; Optical filters; Optical modulation; Optical polarization; radio over fiber; Wavelength reuse; microwave photonics; radio over fiber; Wavelength reuse; dual-polarization modulator; full duplex
• ISSN: 1041-1135; 1941-0174
• DOI: 10.1109/LPT.2016.2514612

A simple and low-cost full-duplex radio-over-fiber (RoF) link implementing wavelength reuse for short-range applications is proposed and demonstrated based on a dual-polarization Mach-Zehnder modulator (DPol-MZM). In the center unit, a continuous-wave optical carrier is sent to a DPol-MZM to generate an optical signal with data modulation along one polarization direction and an unmodulated optical carrier along the other orthogonal polarization direction. In the remote antenna unit, a polarization beam splitter is used to separate the modulated signal for downstream service and the unmodulated optical carrier for upstream signal remodulation. A proof-of-concept experiment is carried out. Performance of the established full-duplex RoF link operated at 18 GHz is investigated. The measured bit error rate and the error vector magnitude confirm that the proposed architecture is a promising candidate for future high-speed and low-cost short-range applications.