Study and simulation of the optical impairments in a CO-OFDM/RoF system

Abstract

One of the most advanced and attracting technologies in optical fiber communication systems that support efficient convergence of wireless and optical access network structure is Radio over Fiber (RoF). In RoF, light is modulated by using a radio signal and sent over an optical fiber link to simplify wireless access. As the demand for high-speed wireless communications is increasing rapidly, Coherent Optical Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (CO-OFDM) technology is considered to be a fundamental technique to satisfy this need. The aim of this project is to investigate through simulation the impairments due to the integration of CO-OFDM with RoF for achieving high data rates over long haul optical fiber systems. Solutions to combat the attenuation as well as the dispersion effects on such systems have been proposed and tested.