Abstract

The growing demand for ubiquitous broadband connectivity in 5G/6G Radio Access Networks (RANs) has turned Centralized RAN (C-RAN) and reconfigurable Point-to-MultiPoint (PtMP) network topologies into the mainstream approach for keeping pace with the vastly increasing traffic capacities and connection densities. Relying on an all-passive Arrayed Waveguide Grating Router (AWGR), we propose and demonstrate reconfigurable allocation of multiple parallel Fiber-Wireless (FiWi) millimeter wave (mmWave) analog (Intermediate Frequency over Fiber) IFoF interfaces. The proposed technology provides a framework for the implementation of reconfigurable multiple FiWi backhaul/midhaul/fronthaul (X-haul) connections. The use of AWGR enables wavelength slicing and the co-existence of multiple transport links over the same X-haul network infrastructure. The proposed concept is experimentally validated by two sets of experimental measurements. More specifically a 4λ- Wavelength-Division Multiplexed (WDM) signals modulated by IFoF signals are routed through the AWGR and wirelessly transmitted over the air across a 1m V-band distance by two different pairs of mmWave 60 GHz antennas. In the first experiment, a Phased Array Antenna (PAA) operating at 60 GHz is utilized achieving a 2.5 Gb/s data rate per wavelength and beam pair with an Error Vector Magnitude (EVM) of less than 12.5% and an aggregate 10 Gb/s traffic capacity. The achieved performance meets for the first time the respective 5G Key Performance Indicator (KPI) requirements for EVM quality and peak data traffic while supporting the link reconfiguration wavelength routing and mmWave beam direction. In the second experiment, the PAA is replaced by a point-to-point 60 GHz link utilizing a high-end mm-wave transmitter, thus achieving a data rate of 12.75 Gb/s per wavelength-beam with an EVM of less than 6.5% and an aggregate capacity of 51 Gb/s. To this end, the proposed solution is shown to form a promising roadmap toward flexible and reconfigurable 5G/6G mmWave C-RAN architectures where multiple Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) can share the same network infrastructure and dynamically allocate fiber, antenna beams and wavelengths.

Analog fiber-wireless downlink transmission of IFoF/mmWave over in-field deployed legacy PON infrastructure for 5G fronthauling

K. Kanta, A. Pagano, E. Ruggeri, M. Agus, I. Stratakos, R. Mercinelli, C. Vagionas, P. Toumasis, G. Kalfas, G. Giannoulis, A. Miliou, G. Lentaris, D. Apostolopoulos, N. Pleros, D. Soudris, and H. Avramopoulos
J. Opt. Commun. Netw. 12(10) D57-D65 (2020)

Live demonstration of an SDN-reconfigurable, FPGA-based TxRx for an analog-IFoF/mmWave radio access network in an MNO’s infrastructure

K. Kanta, P. Toumasis, G. Giannoulis, I. Stratakos, G. Lentaris, E. A. Papatheofanous, I. Mesogiti, E. Theodoropoulou, A. Margaris, D. Syrivelis, E. Kyriazi, G. Brestas, K. Tokas, N. Argyris, C. Vagionas, R. Maximidis, P. Bakopoulos, A. Mesodiakaki, M. Gatzianas, G. Kalfas, K. Tsagkaris, N. Pleros, D. Reisis, G. Lyberopoulos, D. Apostolopoulos, D. Soudris, and H. Avramopoulos
J. Opt. Commun. Netw. 15(8) C299-C306 (2023)

RoF-based indoor distributed antenna system that can simultaneously support 5G mmWave and 6G terahertz services

Sang-Rok Moon, Minkyu Sung, Eon-Sang Kim, Joon Ki Lee, Seung-Hyun Cho, and Joonyoung Kim
Opt. Express 30(2) 1521-1533 (2022)

ERON: an energy-efficient and elastic RF-optical architecture for mmWave 5G radio access networks

Hongbo Lu, Roberto Proietti, Gengchen Liu, Xiaoliang Chen, and S. J. Ben Yoo
J. Opt. Commun. Netw. 12(7) 200-216 (2020)

Soft-Stacked PON for Soft C-RAN

Weisheng Hu, Lilin Yi, Hao He, Xuelin Yang, Zhengxuan Li, Meihua Bi, Kuo Zhang, Haiyun Xin, Yuan Liu, and Weijia Du
J. Opt. Commun. Netw. 8(11) B12-B20 (2016)