Overcoming Chromatic-Dispersion-Induced Power Fading in ROF Links Employing Parallel Modulators

Abstract

This letter presents a chromatic dispersion (CD) compensation scheme using parallel electro-optic phase and intensity modulators suitable for long-reach radio-over-fiber links. By properly adjusting the optical power and the time delay between the two modulated signals, the power fading aroused by the CD is adequately compensated over a wide operating bandwidth of 0-18 GHz over a 34-km single-mode fiber (SMF). Compared with a double sideband (DSB) modulated link, an enhancement of up to 31 dB·Hz <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2/3</sup> in the spur-free dynamic range for a 9.5-GHz signal is obtained. Furthermore, a bit-error rate of 10 <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">-10</sup> is obtained when a 9.5-GHz carrier loading 2-Gb/s pseudorandom bit sequence is transmitted over the dispersive link, which is not achievable for the DSB modulated link.