Channel Equalization for converged OFDM-Based
5G mm-wave A-RoF System at 60 GHz
1st Umar Farooq
Department of Informatics,
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124, Thessaloniki, Greece
& &
2021 IEEE 11th Annual Computing and Communication Workshop and Conference (CCWC) | 978-1-6654-1490-6/21/$31.00 ©2021 IEEE | DOI: 10.1109/CCWC51732.2021.9375831
Center for Interdisciplinary Research and Innovation 10th Km
Thessalonikis- Thermis Av., 57001, Greece
umfarooq@csd.auth.gr
Abstract— In this article, we are presenting, using
simulations, a converged analogue radio-over-fiber (A-RoF) 5G
mm-wave system at 60GHz and we are compensating the
dispersion in the optical link with a simple least mean square
(LMS) equalizing algorithm applied in Matlab inversing the
transmission channel impairments. Quadrature Amplitude
Modulation (QAM) 4 and 16 are used in the Orthogonal
Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) subcarriers and
greatest communication distance of 25 km and 15 km are
achieved respectively after equalization.
Keywords— Analogue radio-over-fiber (A-RoF), Least mean
square (LMS), mm-waves, Quadrature Amplitude Modulation
(QAM), Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM)
I. INTRODUCTION
Nowadays with the increased need for high-bandwidth
applications, such as video streaming, huge data transfers, etc.
it is mandatory to find a technology that could provide the
users the required bandwidth. The 60GHz or “mm-wave”
technology has gained significant popularity due to 7–9 GHz
of license-free bandwidth worldwide offering great potential
to achieve Gbit/s wireless data rates [1-3].
A fronthaul network connecting an extending number of small
base stations would have higher energy efficiency, resilience,
low jitter, minimal cost, and higher capacity. The most
apparent answer to discover correspondent fronthaul network
would include the use of a converged mm-wave network and
the convergence of mm-wave frequency at 60 GHz with
optical fiber networks provides high-capacity, flexibility,
wide-area coverage, cost and energy-efficiency for several-
gigabit [4-6] signal distribution in ultra-fast mobile and
wideband wireless networks.
Currently a fronthaul network exploits digitized optical
transmission, mainly utilizing a protocol connecting the links
between central units (CUs) and distributed units (DUs) called
Common Public Radio Interface (CPRI) and Digital Radio
over Fiber (D-RoF) technologies. However, CPRI requires
outrageous transmission ability relative to the initial user
output due to the digitization method. Considering the
deployment of 5G systems, in which the user data rate will be
approximately 20 Gb/s, it is obvious that CPRI is not
expandable [7,8]. Analog Radio over Fiber (A-RoF) has been
used, to improve the bandwidth utilization efficiency.
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2nd Amalia Miliou
Department of Informatics,
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124, Thessaloniki, Greece
Center for Interdisciplinary Research and Innovation 10th Km
Thessalonikis- Thermis Av., 57001, Greece
amiliou@csd.auth.gr
Moreover, analog mobile fronthaul execution for 5G provision
of services can constantly synchronize through the deployed
fiber substructure [4] without the need for new fiber
deployment.
In optical communication systems a multicarrier modulation
technique that is widely used because of its high spectral
efficiency, immunity to multipath fading, resilience to
interference and its capability to combat both inter symbol
interference (ISI) and inter-carrier interference (ICI) using
cyclic prefix is Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing
(OFDM) [9]. OFDM when used with higher order Quadrature
Amplitude Modulation (QAM) improves system’s
performance allowing for higher data transmission rate with
low Bit Error Ratio (BER).
However, such a converged system, with standard single mode
fiber (SSMF) in the link would suffer from chromatic
dispersion. For bit rates up to 2.5 Gbit/s, problems associated
to dispersion can be solved using narrowband transmitters. For
high bit-rate systems (≥ 10 Gbit/s) as in the case of (OFDM)
the dispersion limits the transmission distance. Thus, there is a
need for dispersion compensation in the fiber as it deteriorates
the output signal. To avoid such a problem authors in [10]
used intensity and parallel electro-optic phase modulators and
proposed single-side band (SSB) modulation scheme. In [11]
authors proposed a method to lower the susceptibility to
dispersion in a standard single mode fiber optical channel
based on mode-locked lasers for mm-waves generation and
propagation. In [12] authors used dispersion compensating
fiber (DCF) to compensate dispersion in 60 GHz mm-wave
link comprising radio over fiber technology and OFDM
modulation format with 4 QAM in subcarriers at 40 Gb/s
while in [13] authors experimentally demonstrated a V-band
(57-66 GHz) OFDM-RoF system with real-time reception,
using field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) in the form of
digital signal processor (DSP) boards to recover the original
transmitted data. In addition, there is a dispersion-shifted fiber
(DSF) solution which is used in [14] but it is not well-suited
with 5G wireless and mobile networks. Another solution is to
utilize a 1310-nm laser due to its close to zero dispersion
coefficient, but it has greater optical penalty equated with the
1550-nm laser wavelength. All methods proposed above to
compensate dispersion consist of costly hardware, which
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would increase the total system cost and complexity when
used with converged A-RoF mm-wave setup at 60 GHz.
In this work, we proposed a converged OFDM based 5G mm-
wave A-RoF system at 60 GHz in a well-known
commercial software VPI Photonics Design SuiteTM [15] with
4 and 16 QAM as a modulation format in all the OFDM
subcarriers. The channel in this setup consists of a standard
single mode fiber having dispersion 16 ps/nm/km. To
compensate the dispersion in such setup digital signal
processing has been performed in Matlab [16]. The method
employed here is to extract the data in the form of distorted
constellation from the OFDM receiver and import it in Matlab
to process offline by the least mean square equalizer (LMS)
[17]. The error vector magnitude (EVM) [18, 19] of the
equalized constellation is calculated mathematically.
II. LEAST MEAN SQUARE ALGORITHM
Channel equalization plays an important role in overwhelming
channel distortions originated by the occurrence of fading,
dispersion and multipath effects, in OFDM systems.
The basic operation of equalization is to inverse the
propagation channel nonlinearities such as dispersion in the
fiber and phase and amplitude distortions.
Adaptive equalizers are algorithms creating a digital filter
which basically has the opposite complex frequency response
of the impaired channel by automatically adapting to the time
changing properties of the transmission channel. Moreover, an
adaptive algorithm Least Mean Square (LMS) which is a well-
known algorithm of filtering used to find a desired filter
coefficients and having a criterion to minimize the Mean
Square Error (MSE) amidst the ideal signal and the actual
(measured) signal [17].
III. ERROR VECTOR MAGNITUDE
After equalization, the error vector magnitude (EVM) of the
equalized constellation is calculated. Figure 1 shows the
calculation of the EVM metric.
Fig.1. Calculation of Error Vector Magnitude
The equation utilized to calculate the EVM is given by [18,
19]
(1)
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where Sidea,r is the ideal normalized rth symbol point and Smeas,r
is the measured normalized rth symbol point in a stream of
ideal and distorted symbols.
IV. EXPERIMENTAL SETUP
We present a simulated demonstration of converged mm-wave
OFDM A-RoF system at 60 GHz. The simulated setup used in
the present work is shown in Fig.2.
Fig.2. Direct detection converged OFDM A-RoF mm-wave system at 60GHz
The OFDM transmitter in Fig.3 consists of a Pseudo Random
Binary Sequence (PRBS) block that is used to generate data,
at a data rate arbitrated by the type of modulation format and
the used bitrate. The digitized binary bits are disbursed into bit
patterns, and each bit pattern is then coded into a particular
modulation format in the settings defined in the ‘OFDM
Subcarrier Modulation format’ in the coder block. In our
proposed case 4 and 16 QAM is used as a subcarrier
modulation parameter as an indication of proof of concept.
The parameter “Bits Per Symbol QAM” represents the number
of bits encoded in each symbol. In our simulation setup 2 bits
per symbol are used for 4 QAM and 4 bits per symbol are
used for 16 QAM. Pulse shaping is done after the OFDM
coding stage. In pulse shaping, a raised cosine characteristic
filter is used to pulse-shape the rectangular input pulses. By
pulse shaping the transferred pulses, the inter-symbol
interference (ISI) occurred in the transmission link can be
controlled. Subsequently, RF up-conversion is done by using
sine wave generator and mixers. The RF phase shifter is used
for the In-phase and Quadrature channel data modulation. The
In-phase data channel is modulated by a cos wave carrier
while Quadrature modulation is done by a sine wave carrier.
Finally, multiple level In-phase and Quadrature phase 4 or 16
quadrature amplitude modulation encoded symbols are
obtained after an OFDM signal is up-converted by the selected
radio frequency. To generate mm-waves as shown in Fig.4 a
continuous wave (CW) laser and a Mach-Zehnder modulator
(MZM) is used to modulate the input light signal. In this
technique, a signal from an ‘Electric Sine Generator’ is
inserted into an MZM. After the signal is passed through the
MZM it consists of many sidebands as shown in Fig. 5. The
frequency separation between two consecutive sidebands is
similar to the input electrical signal frequency which in our
simulation setup, a frequency division of four time periods of
the input electrical signal is selected. The chosen frequency of
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the input electrical signal is 15 GHz. The generated electrical
signal is then modulated by MZM and the optical signal is
proceeded using a filter array waveguide grating (AWG)
module and the frequency spacing between adjacent channels
is adjusted. Subsequently, a ‘Bus Selector’ module is used to
select the appropriate side bands where two sidebands are
Fig.3. Implementation of OFDM transmitter
Fig.4. Generation of mm-wave
Fig.5. Optical Spectrum after Mach-Zehnder modulator
selected as shown in Fig. 6 separated at 60 GHz. Next a
‘WDM_MUX’ module is used to merge the two sidebands to
a single sideband. Amplified spontaneous emission noise is
reduced by a bandpass filter (OBPF). Subsequently, the
generated converged mm-wave at 60 GHz and OFDM signals
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are sent through an optical link with a standard single mode
fiber (SSMF) having 16 ps/nm/km dispersion. The signal is
detected on a single photodiode and then sent to OFDM
receiver to recover the subcarriers.
Fig.6. Selection of mm-wave sidebands (60 GHz)
Fig.7. Implementation of OFDM receiver
The OFDM receiver modules shown in Fig.7 decodes the
electrical QAM-OFDM signal by reversing the process of the
transmitter. In OFDM receiver first the electrical signal
coming from the photodiode is down-sampled to baseband
signal. Subsequently, a raised cosine filter is used to pulse
shape the signal and finally the signal is decoded in the
respective module. After decoding, we received the
constellations of the different subcarriers. The data from the
constellation is extracted and then processed offline for
equalization by the LMS algorithm producing an output in
response to a sequence of input data.
V. RESULTS
The simulated setup of converged OFDM mm-wave A-RoF
described in Fig.2 suffered from chromatic dispersion due to
transmission through a SSMF deteriorating the output signal.
The approach applied in this paper for equalization, as
described in section II, is to provide the distorted and ideal
signals extracted from the setup and import them to LMS
equalizer implemented in Matlab. First, both signals are
normalized because all the possible symbols should have the
mean-square amplitude in the constellations should be the
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same and during each sample period the equalizer filter obtained before and after equalization in the converged mm-
coefficients are adjusted during each sample period to reduce wave presented setup.
the error between the stored ideal signal and the equalized Moreover, we tested different fiber lengths both using 4 QAM
signal. After equalization of the received distorted symbols the and 16 QAM modulation formats in OFDM subcarriers and
error vector magnitude (EVM) of the equalized constellation for each case we calculated the EVM values. The results are
is calculated using Eq.1. plotted in the form of EVM versus fiber length both for 4
QAM and 16 QAM as shown in Fig.10 and Fig.11. The results
reveal that the proposed approach of channel equalization
Before Equalization After Equalization
EVM=28% [4QAM] 25km EVM=14.07% [4QAM] 25km based on LMS algorithm can be used to effectively combat
dispersion in a converged mm-wave A-RoF system at 60 GHz.

Fig.8. Constellation diagram of 4QAM as a modulation format in OFDM

subcarriers before and after equalization (25 km SSMF link)

Before Equalization After Equalization

EVM=18% [16 QAM] 15km EVM=12.05% [16 QAM] 15km

Fig.10. EVM vs Fiber Length for 4 QAM

Fig.9. Constellation diagram of 16QAM as a modulation format in OFDM

subcarriers before and after equalization (15 km SSMF link)

Offline processing resulted in constellation diagrams and error

vector magnitude (EVM) measurements, as shown by Fig. 8
and Fig. 9, for the 4 QAM and 16 QAM modulation formats
used in each OFDM subcarrier respectively. The performance
of the algorithm is tested in the form of maximum
transmission distance achieved in the presence of fiber
dispersion. It can be seen, that for the 4 QAM case, as a
modulation format, a maximum transmission distance of 25
km has been attained with an error vector magnitude (EVM)
of 14.07% after equalization and in the case of 16 QAM as a
modulation format, a maximum transmission distance of 15
km has been attained, with an error vector magnitude of Fig.11. EVM vs Fiber Length for 16 QAM
12.05% after equalization. For the same length of fiber, the
improvement in EVM with the equalizer is 13.93% in the case VI. CONCLUSIONS
of 4 QAM and 5.95% in the case of 16 QAM as a modulation
format. Both EVM equalized values are below the suggested A converged A-RoF 5G mm-wave system at 60 GHz with
threshold of 3GPP for the corresponding modulation formats. OFDM modulation format has been proposed. Offline DSP in
In particular, Figs. 8-9 present the constellation diagrams the form of LMS equalization has been applied to combat
dispersion in a SSMF which affects the different OFDM

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subcarriers. With this proposed method a maximum
transmission distance of 25 km and 15 km has been achieved in
the case of 4 QAM and 16 QAM as a modulation format in
each OFDM subcarrier with clear constellation diagrams and
EVM values below the 3GPP threshold limits. Future work
will include the use of higher order modulation formats e.g. 64
QAM, 128 QAM, 256 QAM etc. in each OFDM subcarrier
with coherent detection and the use of other DSP algorithms to
further improve the signal.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The research performed in this paper was supported within
the 5G STEP FWD Innovative Training Network, which has
received finances from the EU’s Horizon 2020 Research and
Innovation Programme 2018–2021 under the Marie
Skłáodowska-Curie Action grant agreement No.722429.
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