61.3-Gbps hybrid fiber-wireless in-home network enabled by optical heterodyne and polarization multiplexing

A hybrid fiber-wireless in-home network is proposed to support high-speed multiple input and multiple output (MIMO) orthogonal frequency division multiplexing systems operating at millimeter wave (mm-wave) band by employing optical heterodyne (OH) and polarization multiplexing (PolMux). OH enables the optical generation of mm-wave signals without the intrinsic frequency limitation of electrical local oscillators. Moreover, the frequency agility can be provided by tuning the optical wavelength in an OH system. PolMux explores two orthogonal polarizations at the same optical wavelength to satisfy the wireless MIMO service with low additional cost. Enabled by these techniques, the fiber transmission (1 km) and wireless delivery (1 m) of 61.3-Gbps data at 40-GHz mm-wave are successfully demonstrated. To the best of our knowledge, a record spectral efficiency of 6.82 bit/s/Hz is achieved in such kind of systems. © 2014 IEEE