Multiple beam-steering for 5G multi-user MIMO mobile fronthaul based on IFoF and RoF transmission

Abstract

This paper describes the potential of analog radio-over-fiber (RoF) and intermediate-frequency-over-fiber (IFoF) transmission technology for the future mobile fronthaul (MFH). The background and approach of the analog RoF-based MFH combined with the beamforming technique are presented. We developed an antenna module by integrating sixteen sets of cascaded photodiode, RF amplifier and a patch antenna as a compact wireless transmitter. Three millimeter-wave (MMW) beams were successfully transmitted from the antenna module with beam separation of 30° by photonic controlled beam steering. The experimental results are presented to show the feasibility of a multi-user multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) scenario.