Performance Analysis of Gigabit-capable radio access networks exploiting TWDM-PON and RoF Technologies

Abstract

Millimeter-wave radio-over fiber (MMWRoF) technology is capable of exploiting both fiber communication and wireless communication to provide flexibility, long reach, high capacity, low electromagnetic interference and high immunity to the atmospheric conditions for creating next generation broadband mobile access networks. Combination of MMW-RoF systems and TWDMPONs which are currently worldwide deployed can further reduce the cost of MMW-RoF systems due to the share of optical distributed networks. However, this may impact the system performance because RoF signals are transferred through passive optical components of TWDM-PONs. In this paper, we studied the performance of a nextgeneration broadband mobile access network that is based on a hybrid architecture employing TWDM-PON and MMW-RoF technologies. We have developed a mathematical model of the downlink system. We then comprehensively analyzed the performance of RoF/TWDM hybrid access downlink while considering the impacts of various physical layer impairments of both optical fiber and wireless links. The performance of RoF/TWDM-PON systems with different service reaches is also evaluated in comparison of that of corresponding traditional MMW-RoF systems. The numerical results show that the RoF/TWDMPON combined system can take the advantages of both optical access networks and MMW-RoF technologies to create a promising low-cost, flexible gigabit-bandwidth-capable solution for next generation mobile access networks.