Implementation of a Full Optically-Powered 5G NR Fiber-Wireless System

Abstract

We report the implementation of a full optically-powered 5G new radio (5G NR) fiber-wireless (FiWi) system based on power-over-fiber (PoF) and radio-over-fiber (RoF) technologies. Our approach enables the simultaneous transmission of a 5G NR signal at 3.5 GHz with bandwidth up to 100 MHz and a 2.2-W optical power signal employing dedicated fiber-optics links. The optical-wireless data link consists of a 12.5-km single-mode fiber (SMF) optical fronthaul followed by a 10-m wireless propagation environment, which is the longest wireless reach reported in literature up to now, regarding optically-powered FiWi systems. The proposed PoF system is able to deliver stable electrical power up to 475 mW, by means of using a 100-m multimode fiber (MMF) link, with the purpose of optically powering a 5G NR remote antenna unit (RAU). An overall power transmission efficiency (PTE) of 23.5% is experimentally demonstrated in a real 5G NR system. Furthermore, the FiWi system performance is investigated in accordance with the <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$3^{\mathrm rd}$</tex-math></inline-formula> generation partnership project (3GPP) Release 15 requirements, in terms of root mean square error vector magnitude ( <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><tex-math notation="LaTeX">${\mathrm EVM}_{\mathrm RMS}$</tex-math></inline-formula> ). The proposed optically-powered 5G NR FiWi system provides 500 Mbit/s throughput with <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><tex-math notation="LaTeX">${\mathrm EVM}_{\mathrm RMS}$</tex-math></inline-formula> as low as 3.9%, employing 64-quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) without using optical amplification.