General Approach to Chromatic Dispersion Analysis of Microwave Optical Link Architectures

Abstract

Fiber-optical transmission of microwave (MW) and millimeter-wave (MMW) signals in the λ=1.55 μm wavelength window has become an intensive research area of MW photonics recently [1]. A main field of potential applications is the optical transmission and wireless distribution of broadband data in future picocellular access systems [2-5]. A seemingly simple solution utilizes very high-speed external modulators or direct modulated lasers and ultra-fast optical receivers for MW/MMW signal distribution over the optical network. Then in the last few hundred meters the optically fed base station is connected to the subscribers by MW or MMW radio channels. The increasing demand for higher and higher carrier frequencies in the radio channels requires even MMW optical links. Amplification is performed in the optical path by Erbium-doped fiber amplifiers (EDFA). However, chromatic dispersion of standard singlemode fibers (SMF) at λ=1.55 μm leads to a drastic penalty in detected signal strength [4-7].