Optics Communications 264 (2006) 142147

www.elsevier.com/locate/optcom

Characteristics of radio transmission over polymer optical ber

for indoor wireless coverage
Tao Jia

a,b

, Shilie Zheng
a
b

a,b,*
,

Xianmin Zhang

a,b

, Xinyu Jin a, Xicheng Ai c, Jian Xu

Department of Information and Electronic Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China
The Electromagnetics Academy at Zhejiang University, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
c
Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100080, China
Received 24 June 2005; received in revised form 10 February 2006; accepted 17 February 2006

Abstract
The characteristics of radio over polymer optical ber (RoPOF) are evaluated for indoor or in-building wireless coverage. The frequency responses and the third order intermodulation distortion products of the RoPOF link are investigated. The eye diagrams and
EVM values of signals carrying quadrature-phase-shift-keyed (QPSK) data and global system for mobile (GSM) signals are measured
to evaluate the transmission performance. The interference measurements with FDM are also carried out. The results show that although
the nonlinear distortion and power loss deteriorate the system to some extent, making use of passband transmission, RoPOF can provide
fairly good transmission performance for wireless applications.
2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Polymer optical ber; Radio over ber; Error vector magnitude; Nonlinear distortion and interference

1. Introduction
Radio over ber (ROF) technology is used to enhance
the radio coverage for wireless applications. By this technology, the radio signals directly transmit over the ber
without processed at the antenna base station, and the
complicated RF modem and signal processing functions
are transferred from radio access points (RAPs) to a centralized control station. Therefore, it reduces system-wide
installation and maintenance costs, simplies the remote
antenna base station, and makes signal format transparent
[1,2].
In ROF systems, multimode optical ber has been providing a cost-reducing alternative for the commonly used
single-mode ber [3,4] due to its low installation and maintenance costs, large core diameter for easy coupling and
splicing. As mobile services and wireless LANs proliferate
into the oce and residential environments, indoor or in*

Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 57188206358.

E-mail address: zhengsl@zju.edu.cn (S. Zheng).

0030-4018/$ - see front matter 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.optcom.2006.02.039

building wireless technique coverage will become more

and more important [5]. In UWB system, data can be
transmitted over a wide spectrum of frequencies for short
to medium distance around 15100 m [6]. Therefore, polymer optical ber (POF) is emerging as an attractive alternative [7,8]. Using POF instead of silica multimode ber may
provide additional reduction of installation eorts, because
of its ductility and larger core diameter (beyond 100 lm).
Furthermore, for short distance applications, the length
limitation of POF, due to its loss compared with silica
ber, can be ignored.
In this paper, we performed a performance evaluation
for RF transmission characteristics over POF. The
frequency response of the POF is measured, and then the
intermodulation distortion (IMD) of the system is analyzed. The eye diagrams and EVM of the RF signals carrying quadrature-phase-shift-keyed (QPSK) data, global
system for mobile (GSM) signals and pacic digital cellular
(PDC) signals are measured to further evaluate the transmission performance, and nally the interference measurements with FDM are carried out.

T. Jia et al. / Optics Communications 264 (2006) 142147

2. Experimental conguration

3. Results and discussion

The experimental conguration for measuring the frequency response of the RoPOF is depicted in Fig. 1a.
The RoPOF link is shown in the dashed pane. The RF
signals ranging from 50 MHz to 2.5 GHz were generated
by a vector network analyzer (ES8722, Agilent). A modulated diode laser driver (MDL300) was used to modulate the RF signal before driving the 650-nm diode
laser head. The modulated signal was focused by a lens
and then launched into a 20 or 50 m PMMA POF.
The output of the ber, focused by another lens, was
directly detected by a 2 GHz photodetector with an
active area of 0.1 mm2 and then amplied by a low noise
amplier (LNA), whose output was in turn connected to
another port of the vector network analyzer. The resulting NA at the PD side was 0.2. The diameter of the used
POF (Agilent) was 1 mm, with n1 = 1.492 and n2 = 1.417,
and the length of the POF was 20 and 50 m, respectively.
Before launched into the PD, the light power attenuated
about 6 dB through the system with 20 m POF, and
about 11 dB through the system with 50 m POF. The
POF we used was old style, which however had been
applied in short distance application, such as Lucent
Technologies WavesStar DACS 4/4/1 [9] whose links
were 2.5 and 4 m in length. Applying the RoPOF system
to these commercial base installations would be very
economical.
Fig. 1b shows the experiment setup for measuring the
transmission performance of the RoPOF link in digital
signal applications. Agilent E8267C vector signal
generator (VSG) was used as the RF signal source. At
the receiving end, an Agilent E4407B spectrum analyzer
was used to present the signal spectrum, and to
down-convert the RF signal to 70 MHz IF signal. The
70 MHz IF signal was analyzed by Agilent 89600S
vector signal analyzer (VSA), where the eye-diagram
and the error vector magnitude (EVM) could be
obtained.

3.1. Frequency response

Modulated Diode Laser

Driver MDL 300

650-nm laser head

LDH8-1-223

POF

Lens

LNA

PD

LNA

The frequency responses of radio over 20 and 50 m POF

link are shown in Fig. 2. For comparison purposes, the
results of the frequency response were normalized to the
input signal. The actual response we obtained in the experiment was far below 0 dBm, which was caused by coupling
losses, electrical to optical conversion process and optical
to electrical conversion in the POF link.
The 3-dB modal bandwidth for the 20 and 50 m POF
was about 320 and 150 MHz, respectively, which was very
close to the worst-case bandwidth specied for the POF we
used. However, the frequency responses of the POF did not
fall steadily apart from zero, but had some relatively at
regions. For 20 m POF, the at region lied around 0.6
and 1.25 GHz, while for 50 m POF, the relatively at
region located around 1 GHz. With respect to the zero frequency level, these relative at regions cannot be used for a
single broadband channel because of their large degradation in response. Nevertheless, transmission of passband
channels will be possible in this region, which makes the
multichannel subcarrier transmission a potentially promising approach to increase the bers capacity. The dierences of the at regions between 20 and 50 m POF
demonstrate that the frequency range suitable for the passband transmission varies from ber to ber as well as the
ber length.
The transmission characteristics of multimode ber are
often assumed to follow a Gaussian low-pass frequency
characteristic. However, when chromatic dispersion is
small and coupling between the modes can be neglected,
the impulse response of a length of multimode ber can
be considered to be a sequence of delta functions that correspond to the arrival times of the individual ber modes.
Therefore, the frequency characteristics of the ber should

Lens

Agilent 8722ES
network analyzer

Modulated Diode Laser

Driver MDL 300

650-nm laser head

LDH8-1-223

POF

Lens

PD

Agilent
E8267C VSG

Computer
PC

Lens
Agilent
89600S VSA

Agilent
E4407B ESA

Fig. 1. Experimental conguration for: (a) measuring the frequency

response of the RoPOF; (b) measuring the transmission performance of
the RoPOF in digital signal applications.

143

Fig. 2. Frequency response of radio over 20 and 50 m SIPOF.

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T. Jia et al. / Optics Communications 264 (2006) 142147

show high-frequency components of signicant amplitude

[10,11]. This is why the observed power and response uctuations occur. The ber length directly varies the arrival
times of the individual ber modes, which is the main factor aecting the position and height of passbands. If the
ber length goes longer, there will be more and narrower
peaks appearing in a certain scale of frequency. In addition, the position of the higher-frequency lobes also
depends on the exact ber characteristics, which may vary
due to external circumstances such as the induced stress by
bending or environmental temperature variations. Modal
noises induced by mechanical stress may reduce SNR and
aect the position and height of passbands too. In our
experiment, in order to eliminate the eects of mechanical
stress on the frequency response, the bers were placed
loosely on a plate with 35 cm diameter. Anyway, we found
the ber length mainly dominated the position and height
of passbands under the room temperature.

received signals without and with POF link are shown in

Fig. 3(a) and (b). The POF length was 50 m. It can be seen
that with the POF link, the carrier signal power decreases
from about 5 to 15 dBm while the IP3 power remains
almost the same, which causes the IMD3/carrier value
decreases from 44.6 to 34.9 dB. When the frequency space
of two-tone signal was tuned from 1 to 80 MHz, the maximum relative tone space our VSG could aord, the same
IMD3/carrier values were obtained. Spurious-free dynamic
range through the RoPOF system is about 61.7 dB.
The reduction of IMD3/carrier value in the RoPOF link
is generally caused by the RF loss and nonlinearity distortion. The nonlinearity mainly coming from the combined
eects of laser driver and LNA aggravates the distortion.
For a longer transmission distance, laser chirp and the ber
chromatic dispersion [12,13] will also enhance some nonlinearity. However, the obtained IMD3/carrier value will not
distort the RF signal greatly. This can be veried in the
transmission test part.

3.2. IMD
3.3. Interference measurements with FDM
Intermodulation occurs as a result of the signal traversing components and devices with nonlinear transfer
functions. It is a particular type of nonlinear distortion,
which is the primary cause of in-band and out-of-band
spectral regrowth (i.e. distortion) and results from
unwanted intermodulation between the multiple frequency
components that comprise a signal. Two-tone and multitone signals are used extensively in the communication
industry to test for nonlinear distortion at the component,
device, sub-system, and system level. To survey the nonlinearity in the RoPOF, in this step, third order intermodulation distortion products (IP3) were measured. Unlike
harmonic and second-order distortion products, IP3 are
in-band and cannot be easily ltered, which make it important factor in FDM system.
Two-tone signal spaced 20 MHz was modulated onto
1 GHz carrier by VSG. The Electrical spectra of the

FDM is one of the universal division multiple access

types employed in wireless communications. In this step,
measurements were carried out to understand the eect
of frequency separation between the channels as well as
the eect of each RF power level. These measurements
were taken to analyze the interference between two users
with separate RF carriers, who shared the same RoPOF
link.
Here, two independent 1 Mb/s QPSK signals were modulated onto the RF carrier. 1 GHz carrier was set as the
desired user, while another frequency 1.005 GHz (or
1.0379 GHz) was set as the interfering user. Both these
two carriers were combined and transmitted through the
RoPOF link simultaneously. The maximum frequency separation was 37.9 MHz, owing to the limitation of the signal
generator. The interfering power was changed from 10 to

Fig. 3. Electrical spectrum of the received signal: (a) without POF link; (b) with POF link.

T. Jia et al. / Optics Communications 264 (2006) 142147

+10 dBm. The power of the desired user decreased until its
constellation was no longer distinguishable, when the RMS
EVM value increases more than 25%. This minimum
power of the desired user, counted as the minimum detectable power, was recorded. The results were shown in
Fig. 4. The same experiments were repeated with and without optical link.

145

From Fig. 4, it can be concluded that there was almost

no interference without the optical link, especially with a
37.9 MHz frequency separation. However, with optical
link, the interfering signal power signicantly aects the
signal quality of desired user. As the frequency separation
became larger, the minimum detectable power decreased
to some degree, which meant a weaker interference. The
power of each user through the link dominated interference
regardless of their frequency separation.
3.4. The quality of the digital signals

Fig. 4. The minimum detectable power of desired user as a function of the

interfering power.

The eye diagrams and constellations of vector-modulated signals will distort because of channel nonlinearity
and power loss, so they are usually looked as the standards
when measuring the signal quality. To further investigate
this eect on the RoPOF system, the RF signals carrying
20 Mb/s QPSK signals were tested. The signals based on
the standard of 900 MHz global system for mobile
(GSM) and 950 MHz pacic digital cellular (PDC) were
also measured in this system. To further eliminate the eect
of power loss and get a more comparable conclusion
between source signal and received signal, LNA was set
to make the power of received signal almost equal with
the source signal.
The eye diagrams of 1 GHz RF signals carrying dierent
bit rate QPSK data were shown in Fig. 5. Figs. 5a and b

Fig. 5. Eye diagrams for QPSK mixed onto 1 GHz carrier of: (a) 20 Mb/s signal generated is connected directly to the VSA; (b) 20 Mb/s signal across the link.

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T. Jia et al. / Optics Communications 264 (2006) 142147

Fig. 6. Eye diagrams and constellation patterns of GSM 900-MHz signal at 0-dBm for radio over 20 m SIPOF (a) directly connected to the VSA;
(b) through the RoPOF network.

T. Jia et al. / Optics Communications 264 (2006) 142147

147

decreases. Comparing with the EVM of GSM and PDC,

it was found that, the latter was much better than the former. The data bit rate of GSM (270.8 kb/s) is far more than
that of PDC (42 kb/s), which makes PDC signal less
demanding for the channel bandwidth and signal power,
but more easily aected when the interference power and
intermodulation distortion are strong.
4. Conclusions

Fig. 7. EVM performance of the signal for radio over 20 m SIPOF.

were the I-eye diagrams of 20 Mb/s QPSK signal without

and with the 20 m POF links. The input digital signal
power was 0 dBm. It can be seen that the eyes were widely
open when the 20 Mb/s QPSK signal were transmitted
through the POF link. The eyes will open wider when the
bit rate of the signal decreases. However, the obtained
eye diagrams of both these two signals were relatively good
and accredited.
Fig. 6 displays the eye diagrams and the constellation
patterns of a GSM signal with 0-dBm input power for:
(a) signal directly connected to the VSA; and (b) signal
through the RoPOF network, respectively. According to
the eye diagrams and constellation patterns, the GSM signal, after transmitting through the RoPOF link, was only a
little distorted. The maximum RMS EVM required for
GSM is about 13.8%. The obtained EVM value at this
point was 1.5%, which met the criteria suciently.
Fig. 7 shows the EVM measurements as a function of
the input signal power for both the GSM signal and
PDC signal when transmitting through the RoPOF link.
It can be seen that with the input signal power decreasing,
the EVM value of the GSM signal increases, suggesting a
deteriorated transmission performance. The EVM of the
directly connected GSM signal increased rapidly when
the input power was lower than 20 dBm, which could
be explained by the inherent limitation of the VSG. Better
performance will be achieved with the use of high quality of
RF signal generator. While for the GSM signal transmitted
through the POF link, when the input power decreases
below 10 dBm, the EVM increases rapidly. The reason
for the deterioration of the GSM signal through the POF
link can be ascribed to the channel nonlinearity or multichannel interfering in the RoPOF link.
As for the PDC signal, when the input signal power was
larger than 5 dBm, the EVM increases as the input power
rises, which was related to compression eects and stronger
intermodulation distortion. While the input power was
below 5 dBm, the EVM increases as the input power

Some comprehensive measurements are taken to evaluate the performance of RoPOF system. Despite of the baseband transmission, the frequency range suitable for the
passband channel transmission varies from ber to ber
as well with the ber length. Employing the at regions
beyond baseband, the RoPOF link can support several
RF carriers, though nonlinear distortion and power loss
more or less limit the system performance. For short-range
in-building wireless applications, RoPOF not only is superior in low-cost installation and easy handling, but also can
provide fairly good transmission performance. Utilizing
the high quality GI-POF (2 GHz for 500 m state-of-theart) [14], the performance of RoPOF system will be further
enhanced.
Acknowledgements
This research was supported by Specialized Research
Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education
(Grant No. 20010335037). The authors also gratefully
acknowledge Yongliang Cao and Liyuan Zhan for their
help in the experiment.
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