VCSEL-SSMF-based Radio-over-Fiber link for low cost and low consumption wireless dense networks

This paper presents a possible Radio-over-Fiber (RoF) system which can be implemented in current and next generations of cellular networks such as LTE or future 5G. The system proposed is based on low cost and low consumption optical components such as 850 nm Single Mode Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Lasers (VCSELs) and Standard Single Mode Fiber (SSMF) of G.652 type. The performances are evaluated through the computation of the Error Vector Magnitude (EVM) for an entire LTE frame of 10 ms for 20 MHz band signal in band 20 of the standard. Appropriate countermeasures were adopted against the bandwidth reduction due to the behavior of the G.652 fiber, which in the first optical window stops to exhibit monomodality. This allowed to achieve high modulation format transmission is done for various input RF powers and for distances stretching up to 1.5 Km.