High-Capacity Free Space Optics-Based Passive Optical Network for 5G Front-Haul Deployment

Abstract

With the expansion of Information and Communication Technology, it is important to develop a communication network that can provide high-capacity ubiquitous connectivity. This work proposes an energy-efficient passive optical network (PON) using orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) and wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) to facilitate the dense deployment of radio units (RUs) in a beyond 5G (B5G) communication network. High-speed connectivity is ensured by employing a hybrid PON architecture that includes a combination of free space optics (FSO) links and optical fiber (OF) media to carry OFDM and WDM multiplexed traffic. Furthermore, an optical frequency comb generator (OFCG) is utilized at the transmitter module to generate and leverage the spectrum for transmitting information from baseband units (BBUs) to the RUs situated near the end users. The proposed system is analyzed through (i) simulation analysis using Optisystem for transmission capacity computations and (ii) mathematical analysis to determine the total savings in energy. The simulation analysis shows that the given architecture can carry data across 3 km of FSO medium using 512 subcarriers per BBU transmitting at 10 Gbps of data with QPSK-modulated bit sequence. Additionally, energy efficiency shows that the use of an OFCG cuts the total energy usage by 22% at the transmitter module without negatively impacting the system’s high cardinality and transmission capacity.

A High-Capacity Optical Metro Access Network: Efficiently Recovering Fiber Failures with Robust Switching and Centralized Optical Line Terminal

“…The cascaded arrangement of a different or a single modulator is one of several recent ways of generating OMCs [ 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 ]. The OMC is used in the optical access network [ 22 , 24 , 25 ], free space optics [ 26 ], in the OMAN [ 17 , 27 ], and for other applications [ 28 ]. By boosting efficiency and simplifying maintenance, the OMC generators deployed in an OMAN can efficiently deliver a variety of frequencies.…”

Design and performance analysis of OAM‐based multidimensional multiplexing RoF‐PON integrated access system

“…1,2 Recently, some new hybrid access networks have been reported, such as optical metro access network based on low-cost optical multicarrier, 3 and high-capacity free space opticsbased passive optical network (FSO-PON) for 5G front-haul deployment. 4 As a converged access system that combines radio-overfiber (RoF) wireless access technology and PON wired access technology, RoF-PON embodies the advantages of both. [5][6][7][8][9] However, the global explosion of data traffic has almost pushed the development of traditional photonic dimension resources to their limits.…”

“…The next generation of integrated fiber‐wireless access networks has been in pressing need of low‐cost and high‐capacity deployment to meet user demand 1,2 . Recently, some new hybrid access networks have been reported, such as optical metro access network based on low‐cost optical multicarrier, 3 and high‐capacity free space optics‐based passive optical network (FSO‐PON) for 5G front‐haul deployment 4 . As a converged access system that combines radio‐overfiber (RoF) wireless access technology and PON wired access technology, RoF‐PON embodies the advantages of both 5–9 .…”