Photonic implementation of 4-QAM/QPSK electrical modulation at millimeter-wave frequency

We propose a photonic method for generating millimeter-wave 4-QAM/QPSK modulated signals. The method is based on optical phase modulation by multilevel electrical signals and optical carrier-suppression. Simulation results are presented for 2.5 Gsymbol/s 4-QAM and QPSK signals at a 36 GHz carrier. Furthermore, this method can be extended to generate millimeter-wave m-PSK signals and can be incorporated into broadband radio-over-fiber systems to support wireless/ wireline converged access network.