Radio over Fiber Access Networks for Broadband Wireless Communications

Abstract

In recent years, considerable attention has been devoted to the merging of Radio over Fiber (RoF) technologies with millimeter-wave-band signal distribution. This type of system has great potential to support secure, cost-effective coverage and high-capacity vehicular/mobile/wireless access for the future provisioning of broadband, interactive, and multimedia services. In this chapter, the authors present an overview of an RoF access networks in the context of in-vehicle networks, with special attention to the figures of merit of the system and the basic enabling technologies for downlink/uplink transmission in the RoF land network, which is divided in three main subsystems: Central Station (CS), Optical Distribution Network (ODN) and Base Station (BS). The chapter first reviews the up-conversion techniques from baseband to mm-waves at the CS, and then the different BS configurations. The work finally applies these concepts to the development of an access network proposal for in-vehicle wireless application.