Linearity and CNR Improvement Technologies against Optical Reflection in Fiber-Oriented Wireless Access Systems

It is important to consider optical reflectionconditions when designing fiber-oriented wirelessaccess systems around subcarrier optical transmissionsince the noise characteristic can be significantlydegraded by optical reflection, especially if narrowspectral width devices are used. The superluminescentdiode (SLD) offers stable noise and 3rd-orderintermodulation distortion (IM3) characteristics thatfollow the ideal cubic law, even under multipleoptical reflection. The SLD-predistorter combinationis proposed as a way to overcome the SLD's narrowdynamic range. It is experimentally found that thepredistorter reduces IM3 by 8 dB. The receiversensitivity of a practical system that uses theSLD-predistorter combination is discussed from theviewpoint of overall design. A superimposedsubcarrier modulation (SSM) technique is also proposedin order to reduce the reflection noise. Weexperimentally confirm that the SSM technique reducesthe noise degradation and provides stable opticaltransmission. An SSM design methodology is presentedthat takes both noise and linearity into account. TheSLD-predistorter and the SSM scheme make it possibleto realize stable transmission performance and widerdynamic range in the presence of optical reflection.