Performance analysis of millimeter wave-based radio over fiber system for next generation networks

The optical generation-based millimeter (MM) wave radio over fiber (RoF) communication system turns out to be an optimum solution for meeting the multi-gbps data transmission in the fifth generation (5G) and beyond wireless networks. This paper presents the photonic generation of millimeter wave (MM wave) through two parallel Mach Zehnder Modulator (MZM) and an optical interleaver for the RoF system. By adjusting the phases of the RF electrical signal and biasing voltage of MZM, 80 GHz optical MM wave signal is generated. Optical sideband suppression ratio higher than 55 dB is obtained for the proposed system. The performance of the system is compared for three different modulation formats: carrier suppressed non-return to zero (CS-NRZ), carrier suppressed return to zero (CS-RZ) and raised cosine pulse. Various parameters such as optical fiber link length and data rate are analyzed in terms of Q factor and BER. CS-NRZ performed exceptionally well by providing high-quality factor of 18.1704 and lower BER of 4.404 * 10-74 for 15 Gbps data rate at 20 km fiber transmission. This system can be applied for high-frequency MM wave applications in next generation (5G) networks.