Hybrid transmission of PS-GS4QAM and QPSK data in the form of a PS-16QAM mm-wave signal enabled by optical asymmetrical dual-SSB modulation.

The independent optical dual-single-sideband (dual-SSB) signal generation and detection can be achieved by an optical in-phase/quadrature (I/Q) modulator and one single photodiode (PD). The dual-SSB signal is able to carry two different information. After PD detection, the optical dual-SSB signal can be converted into an electrical millimeter-wave (mm-wave) signal. Therefore, the optical dual-SSB signal generation and detection technique can be employed in the radio-over-fiber (RoF) system to achieve higher system spectral efficiency and reduce system architecture complexity. However, the I/Q modulator's nonideal property results in the amplitude imbalance of the optical dual-SSB signal, and then the crosstalk can occur. Moreover, after PD detection, the generated mm-wave signal based on the optical dual-SSB modulation has a relatively low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), which restricts the system performance. In this paper, we propose an optical asymmetrical dual-SSB signal generation and detection scheme based on the probabilistic shaping (PS) technology, to decrease the influence of the optical dual-SSB signal's amplitude imbalance and to enhance the system performance in the scenario of the limited SNR. The dual-SSB in our scheme is composed of the left sideband (LSB) in probabilistic-shaping geometric-shaping 4-ary quadrature amplitude modulation (PS-GS4QAM) format and the right sideband (RSB) in quadrature phase-shift keying (QPSK) format. The transmitter digital signal processing (DSP) generates a dual-SSB signal to drive the optical I/Q modulator. The I/Q modulator implements an electrical-to-optical conversion and generates an optical dual-SSB signal. After PD detection, the optical dual-SSB signal is converted into a PS-16QAM mm-wave signal. In our simulation, compared with the normal 16QAM scenario, the PS-16QAM scenario exhibits a ∼1.2 dB receiver sensitivity improvement at the hard-decision forward error correction (HD-FEC) threshold of 3.8×10-3. Therefore, in our experiment, based on the PS technology, we design a dual-SSB signal including a 5 Gbaud LSB-PS-GS4QAM at -15 GHz and a 5 Gbaud RSB-QPSK at 20 GHz. After 5 km standard single-mode fiber (SSMF) transmission and PD detection, the dual-SSB signal is converted into a 5 Gbaud PS-16QAM mm-wave signal at 35 GHz. Then, the generated PS-16QAM signal is sent into a 1.2 m single-input-single-output (SISO) wireless link. In the DSP at the receiver end, the dual-SSB signal can be recovered from the mm-wave signal, and the PS-GS4QAM and QPSK data carried by the dual-SSB signal can be separated. The bit error rates (BERs) of the LSB-PS-GS4QAM and the RSB-QPSK in our experiment can be below the HD-FEC threshold of 3.8×10-3. The results demonstrate that our scheme can tolerate the I/Q modulator's nonideal property and performs well in the scenario of a relatively low SNR.

Simultaneous wireless mm-wave transmission of both SC-modulated and OFDM-modulated high-order QAM signals enabled by bandpass delta-sigma modulation.

The application of dual vector millimeter-wave (mm-wave) signals in radio-over-fiber (RoF) systems represents a significant opportunity to enhance spectrum efficiency, transmission capacity, and access flexibility. In addition, facing the increasingly intricate application scenarios, the comprehensive exploitation of high-order quadrature-amplitude-modulation (QAM) signals with hybrid single-carrier (SC) and orthogonal-frequency-division-multiplexing (OFDM) modulation is also vital to rich systematic connotation. Based on bandpass delta-sigma modulation (BP-DSM) and heterodyne detection, we propose what we believe to be a novel scheme for the simultaneous wireless mm-wave transmission of both SC-modulated and OFDM-modulated high-order QAM signals. The innovation lies in the modulation-agnostic nature, accommodating both SC-modulated and OFDM-modulated vector radio-frequency (RF) signals. The BP-DSM is utilized to digitize two independent SC-modulated and OFDM-modulated high-order QAM signals into relatively simple sequences at the transmitter side. With the aid of an optical I/Q modulator, we can integrate both signals after BP-DSM to generate the desired optical quadrature-phase-shift keying (QPSK) signal carrying both information of two original high-order QAM signals. Facilitated by heterodyne detection and a single photodetector (PD), our scheme attains prowess in the detection of both SC-modulated and OFDM-modulated high-order signals. Based on our proposed scheme, we experimentally demonstrate the simultaneous wireless mm-wave transmission of both SC-modulated and OFDM-modulated 512QAM signals at 30-GHz mm-wave band, demonstrating bit-error-rates (BERs) below the hard decision forward error correction (HD-FEC) threshold of 3.8 × 10-3 after transmission over 10-km single-mode fiber (SMF) link and 1-m wireless link. In addition, we further investigate the performance impact between SC-modulated and OFDM-modulated high-order QAM signals, and experiment results indicate that the impact is virtually negligible. Moreover, the performance of the generated QPSK mm-wave signal is transparent to the QAM modulation formats of both SC-modulated and OFDM-modulated signals in our proposed scheme.

SC and OFDM hybrid coherent optical transmission scheme based on 1-bit bandpass delta-sigma modulation.

High-order quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) can effectively improve the capacity and spectral efficiency of coherent optical transmission systems. However, as the modulation order increases, the signal becomes less tolerant to noise and nonlinear effects during transmission, and the implementation cost also increases. We propose a single carrier (SC) and orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) hybrid coherent optical transmission scheme based on a 1-bit bandpass (BP) delta-sigma modulation (DSM). The driving I-channel and Q-channel signals for the optical in-phase/quadrature (I/Q) modulator carry SC-modulated and OFDM-modulated transmitter data, respectively. Optical quadrature-phase-shift-keying (QPSK) modulation is realized by the 1-bit DSM quantizer and I/Q modulator, which can effectively suppress quantization noise and reduce the complexity of digital signal processing (DSP) and the performance requirements of optoelectronic devices. In addition, the hybrid transmission of SC and OFDM can balance the advantages of both to meet the variable channel conditions and complex application scenarios. High-fidelity transmission of SC 512QAM and OFDM 512QAM hybrid signals, in the form of a 60 Gbaud optical QPSK signal, over 60 km single-mode fiber-28 (SMF-28) is verified by offline experiments, and the bit error rates (BERs) of both SC 512QAM and OFDM 512QAM are below the hard-decision forward-error correction (HD-FEC) threshold of 3.8e-3.

Dual high-order QAM-modulated mm-wave signal transmission in the Q-band enabled by simple IM/DD architecture and bandpass delta-sigma modulation.

The intensity-modulation (IM)/direct-detection (DD) systems have been proven effective and low-cost due to their simple system architecture. However, the Mach-Zehnder modulator (MZM) of the IM/DD systems only reserves its driving signal intensity. Therefore, the IM/DD systems are generally unable to transmit vector signals and have a restricted spectrum efficiency and channel capacity. Similarly, the radio-over-fiber (RoF) transmission systems based on IM/DD are limited by their simple architecture and generally cannot transmit high-order quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) signals, which hinders the improvement of their spectrum efficiency. To address the challenges, we propose a novel, to the best of our knowledge, scheme to simultaneously transmit the dual independent high-order QAM-modulated millimeter-wave (mm-wave) signals in the RoF system with a simple IM/DD architecture, enabled by precoding-based optical carrier suppression (OCS) modulation and bandpass delta-sigma modulation (BP-DSM). The dual independent signals can carry different information, which increases channel capacity and improves spectrum efficiency and system flexibility. Based on our proposed scheme, we experimentally demonstrate the dual 512-QAM mm-wave signal transmission in the Q-band (33-50 GHz) under three different scenarios: 1) dual single-carrier (SC) signal transmission, 2) dual orthogonal-frequency-division-multiplexing (OFDM) signal transmission, and 3) hybrid SC and OFDM signal transmission. We achieve high-fidelity transmission of dual 512-QAM vector signals over a 5 km single-mode fiber (SMF) and a 1-m single-input single-output (SISO) wireless link operating in the Q-band, with the bit error rates (BERs) of all three scenarios below the hard decision forward error correction (HD-FEC) threshold of 3.8 × 10-3. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time dual high-order QAM-modulated mm-wave signal transmission has been achieved in a RoF system with a simple IM/DD architecture.

Dual vector millimeter-wave signal generation based on optical carrier suppression modulation and direct detection with one photodetector.

We propose a novel, to the best of our knowledge, scheme for dual vector millimeter-wave (mm-wave) signal generation and transmission, based on optical carrier suppression (OCS) modulation, precoding, and direct detection by a single-ended photodiode (PD). At the transmitter side, two independent vector radio frequency (RF) signals with precoding, generated via digital signal processing (DSP), are used to drive an in-phase/quadrature (I/Q) modulator operating at the optical OCS modulation mode to simultaneously generate two independent frequency-doubling optical vector mm-wave signals, which can reduce the bandwidth requirement of transmitter's components and enhance spectral efficiency. With the aid of the single-ended PD and subsequent DSP at the receiver side, two independent frequency-doubling vector mm-wave signals can be separated and demodulated without data error. Based on our proposed scheme, we experimentally demonstrate the generation, transmission, and detection of 2-Gbaud 30-GHz quadrature-phase-shift-keying (QPSK) and 2-Gbaud 46-GHz QPSK signals over 10-km single-mode fiber-28 (SMF-28) and 1-m wireless transmission. The results indicate that the bit-error ratio (BER) of the dual vector mm-wave signals can each reach the hard-decision forward-error-correction (HD-FEC) threshold of 3.8 × 10-3.

Photonic-aided W-band dual-vector RF signal generation and detection enabled by bandpass delta-sigma modulation and heterodyne detection.

We propose a photonic-aided dual-vector radio-frequency (RF) signal generation and detection scheme enabled by bandpass delta-sigma modulation and heterodyne detection. With the aid of the bandpass delta-sigma modulation, our proposed scheme is transparent to the modulation format of the dual-vector RF signals and can support the generation, wireless transmission, and detection of both single-carrier (SC) and orthogonal-frequency-division-multiplexing (OFDM) vector RF signals with high-level quadrature-amplitude-modulation (QAM) modulation. With the aid of the heterodyne detection, our proposed scheme can support up to W-band (75-110 GHz) dual-vector RF signal generation and detection. For the validation of our proposed scheme, we experimentally demonstrate the simultaneous generation of a SC-64QAM signal at 94.5 GHz and a SC-128QAM signal at 93.5 GHz and their error-free high-fidelity transmission over a 20-km single-mode fiber 28 (SMF-28) and a 1-m single-input single-output (SISO) wireless link at the W-band. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that delta-sigma modulation has been introduced into a W-band photonic-aided fiber-wireless integration system to achieve flexible and high-fidelity dual-vector RF signal generation and detection.