ECOC19 – FSO
Radio-over-Air with a Face-to-Face EML Transceiver Pair
ECOC 2019, Dublin, Ireland, Sep. 2019, Tu.3.C.2
Authors
Bernhard Schrenk, Dinka Milovancev, Nemanja Vokic, Hannes Hübel, and Fotini Karinou
Abstract
A coherent-optical free-space link for local cloud radio access networks is proposed and experimentally evaluated. Conceptual simplicity is obtained by reducing opto-electronic sub-system complexity at both link ends to a single externally modulated laser. Full-duplex 64-QAM OFDM transmission over a transparent coherent optical pipe is shown over an optical budget of 21.3 dB, or an estimated reach of ~100 m in case of bad atmospheric conditions. The penalty in error vector magnitude is less than 1% when compared to a PIN/TIA-based receiver. Cost-effectiveness is achieved by off-loading the directional split in the signal chain to the RF domain and the dismissal of digital signal recovery functions typically associated to coherent reception.