EPWM-OFDM Signal Transmission against Nonlinearities of E/O Converters in Radio over Fiber Channel

Xiaoxue YU
Yasushi YAMAO
Motoharu MATSUURA

Publication
IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Communications   Vol.E97-B    No.2    pp.484-494
Publication Date: 2014/02/01
Online ISSN: 1745-1345
DOI: 10.1587/transcom.E97.B.484
Print ISSN: 0916-8516
Type of Manuscript: PAPER
Category: Wireless Communication Technologies
Keyword: 
EPWM,  OFDM,  RoF,  nonlinearity,  Mach-Zehnder modulator,  DFB Laser Diode,  

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Summary: 
Radio over Fiber (RoF) is a promising technology that is suitable for broadband wireless access systems to cover in-building areas and outdoor dead-spots. However, one issue in RoF transmission that should be considered is the nonlinear distortion caused by Electrical/Optical (E/O) converters. Multicarrier RF (Radio Frequency) signal formats such as Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM), which are commonly employed in broadband wireless communications, are weak against nonlinearities. To enable the linear transmission of OFDM signal in RoF channel, we propose to employ the Envelop Pulse Width Modulation (EPWM) transmission scheme for RoF channel. Two commonly used E/O converters, Mach-Zehnder modulator and direct-modulation of Distributed Feedback Laser Diode (DFB LD), are employed to validate the proposal. Based on the measured nonlinearities of the E/O converters, they are mathematically modeled and their transmission performance are analyzed. A modified Rapp model is developed for the modeling of the DFB LD. Through simulations and experiments, the proposed scheme is shown to be effective in dealing with the nonlinearities of the E/O converters.