Hybrid optical access network integrating fiber-to-the-home and radio-over-fiber systems

Hybrid optical access networks, integrating fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) and radio-over-fiber (RoF) systems that share a single distributed infrastructure, are promising for future multiservice access networks. The primary concern is to enable RoF and FTTH systems to transmit both radio-frequency (RF) and baseband (BB) signals on a single wavelength over a single fiber. This study experimentally demonstrates simultaneous generation and transmission of a wired-line BB signal and a wireless RF signal on a single wavelength, using one external modulator. The hybrid signals transmitted over standard single-mode fiber (SSMF) do not suffer from periodic performance fading due to fiber dispersion. Following transmission over 50-km SSMF, the power penalties of both RF and BB signals are less than 0.2 dB.