Wavelength division multiplexed radio-over-fiber (WDM-RoF) system for next-generation networks with dispersion compensating fiber

Abstract

Radio-over-fiber (RoF) is a technology in which radio frequency (RF) signals are distributed from central station to remote antenna units using fiber. Wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) is a technique in which different data streams are allowed to be sent parallely over a single fiber at different frequencies for increasing bandwidth. Hence, RoF combined with WDM technology is a prominent solution for many applications. In this article, we have designed an 8-channel 40 Gbps WDM-RoF system for future generation networks. The performance of the system has been evaluated using a simulator and then compared with a 4-channel existing system. A dispersion compensating fiber with a dispersion value at −85 ps/nm/km is used for combating nonlinearity. The simulated 8-channel WDM-RoF system has been analyzed by varying bit rate, input power, number of loops (transmission span), and channel spacing using performance parameters such as Q-factor and BER. It has been observed that the performance of the network improved as the channel spacing increased from 50 to 200 GHz. Moreover, the system performance is reliable up to 200 km.