Abstract

The ever-increasing proliferation of mobile users and new technologies with different applications and features, and the demand for reliable high-speed high capacity, pervasive connectivity and low latency have initiated a roadmap for the next generation wireless networks, fifth generation (5G), which is set to revolutionize the existing wireless communications. 5G will use heterogeneous higher carrier frequencies from the plentifully available spectra in the higher microwave and millimeter-wave (MMW) bands, including licensed and unlicensed spectra, for achieving multi-Gb/s wireless connectivity and overcoming the existing wireless spectrum crunch in the sub-6 GHz bands, resulting from the tremendous growth of data-intensive technologies and applications. The use of MMW when complemented by multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) technology can significantly increase data capacity through spatial multiplexing, and improve coverage and system reliability through spatial diversity. However, high-frequency MMW signals are prone to extreme propagation path loss and are challenging to generate and process with conventional bandwidth-limiting electronics. In addition, the existing digitized fronthaul for centralized radio access network (C-RAN) architecture is considered inefficient for 5G and beyond. Thus, to fully exploit the promising MMW 5G new radio (NR) resource and to alleviate the electronics and fronthaul bottleneck, microwave photonics with analog radio-over-fiber (A-RoF) technology becomes instrumental for optically synthesizing and processing broadband RF MMW wireless signals over optical links. The generation and distribution of high-frequency MMW signals in the optical domain over A-RoF links facilitate the seamless integration of high-capacity, reliable and transparent optical networks with flexible, mobile and pervasive wireless networks, extending the reach and coverage of high-speed broadband MMW wireless communications. Consequently, this fiber-wireless integration not only overcomes the problem of high bandwidth requirements, transmission capacity and span limitation but also significantly reduces system complexity considering the deployment of ultra-dense small cells with large numbers of 5G remote radio units (RRUs) having massive MIMO antennas with beamforming capabilities connected to the baseband units (BBU) in a C-RAN environment through an optical fiber-based fronthaul network. Nevertheless, photonic generation of spectrally pure RF MMW signals either involves complex circuitry or suffers from frequency fluctuation and phase noise due to uncorrelated optical sources, which can degrade system performance. Thus simple highly integrated and cost-efficient low-noise optical sources are required for next-generation MMW RoF wireless transmission systems.
More recently, well-designed quantum confined nanostructures such as semiconductor quantum dash/dot multi-wavelength lasers (QD-MWLs) have attracted more interest in the photonic generation of RF MMW signals due to their simple compact and integrated design with highly coherent and correlated optical signals having a very low phase and intensity noise attributed to the inherent properties of QD materials. The main theme of this thesis revolves around the experimental investigation of such nanostructures on the device and system level for applications in high-speed high-capacity broadband MMW RoF-based fronthaul and wireless access networks. Several photonic-aided high-capacity long-reach MMW RoF wireless transmission systems are proposed and experimentally demonstrated based on QD-MWLs with the remote distribution and photonic generation of broadband multi-Gb/s MMW wireless signals at 5G NR (FR2) in the K-band, Ka-band and V-band in simplex, full-duplex and MIMO configurations over 10 to 50 km optical fiber and subsequent wireless transmission and detection. The QD-MWLs-based photonic MMW RoF wireless transmission systems’ designs and experimental demonstrations could usher in a new era of ultra-high-speed broadband multi-Gb/s wireless communications at the MMW frequency bands for next-generation wireless networks.
The QD-MWLs investigated in this thesis include a simple monolithically integrated and highly coherent low-noise single-section semiconductor InAs/InP QD buried heterostructure passively mode-locked (PML) laser-based optical coherent frequency comb (CFC) and a novel monolithic highly correlated low-noise semiconductor InAs/InP buried heterostructure common-cavity QD dual-wavelength distributed feedback laser (QD-DW-DFBL). The performance of each device is thoroughly characterized experimentally in terms of optical phase noise, relative intensity noise (RIN), timing jitter and RF phase noise exhibiting promising results. Based on these devices, different long-reach photonic MMW RoF wireless transmission systems, including simplex single-input-single-output (SISO) and multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) and bidirectional configurations, are proposed and experimentally demonstrated with real-time remote electrical RF synthesizer-free all-optical frequency up-conversion, wireless transmission and successful reception of wide-bandwidth multi-level quadrature amplitude modulated (M-QAM) RF MMW wireless signals having bit rates ranging from 4 Gb/s to 36 Gb/s over different hybrid fiber-wireless links comprising of standard single mode fiber (SSMF) and indoor wireless channel. The end-to-end links are thoroughly investigated in terms of error-vector-magnitude (EVM), bit-error-rat (BER), constellations and eye diagrams, realizing successful error-free transmission. Finally, novel high-capacity spectrally efficient MIMO and optical beamforming enabled photonic MMW RoF wireless transceivers design and methods based on QD-MWLs with wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) and space division multiplexing (SDM) are proposed and discussed. A proof-of-concept implementation of the proposed photonic MMW RoF wireless transmission system is also simulated in a simple WDM-based configuration with bidirectional 4×4 MIMO MMW carrier streams.