Open AccessReconfigurable multi‐band radio‐frequency transceiver based on photonics technology for future optical wireless communications
Author(s) -
Borges Ramon Maia,
Rodovalho Tércio Naves,
Cerqueira Sodré Junior Arismar
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
iet optoelectronics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.379
H-Index - 42
eISSN - 1751-8776
pISSN - 1751-8768
DOI - 10.1049/iet-opt.2014.0128
Subject(s) - radio frequency , transceiver , photonics , phase noise , electronic engineering , wireless , computer science , transmission (telecommunications) , optical carrier transmission rates , telecommunications , modulation (music) , electrical engineering , engineering , radio over fiber , physics , optoelectronics , acoustics
This study presents the concept and the implementation of a fully photonics‐based and reconfigurable multi‐band radio‐frequency (RF) transceiver for future optical‐wireless communications networks. The proposed device is based on frequency multiplication using optical external modulation technique, which enables to achieve discrete tuning of the wireless frequency by simply manipulating the modulator bias voltage. The physical mechanism behind the frequency multiplication is analytically explained and experimentally demonstrated by generating RF carriers at 5.2 GHz with signal‐to‐noise ratio of up to 54 dB. High spectral purity, distortion absence and low phase noise of the generated RF signals have been observed. Furthermore, the photonics‐based reconfigurable RF transceiver has been implemented and tested in a real optical‐wireless network from the telecom operator Telecom Italia Mobile using a femtocell base station. Data transmission and a high‐quality voice call have been realised using the proposed approach in order to illustrate its applicability.