A Review on Optical Modulators Used in Radio Over Fiber (RoF) System for 6G IoT Applications

One of the most cutting-edge technologies for the next generation is called Radio over Fiber (RoF), which combines an optical network with a wireless network. Because of the numerous advantages offered by optical fiber, RoF systems uses it as a backend technology and modulators play a very significant role in implementing RoF system. Electro-Absorption modulators (EAM), Phase modulators (PM), Electro-Optic modulators (EOM), Acousto-Optic modulators (AOM), Dual Drive Mach Zehnder modulators (DDMZM), Mach Zehnder modulators (MZM) and Dual Parallel Mach Zehnder modulators (DPMZM) have all had their operating principles examined in this paper. The important outcomes regarding the utility of optical modulators have been illustrated and comparative analysis based on the design parameters and characteristics is also performed and the observations in the paper will play an important role for emerging wireless applications.