Industrial Consultancy & Sponsored Research (IC&SR) , IIT Madras
Method and Optical Fronthauling System for Analog Optical Fronthauling in 5G Communication Network
Technology Category/Market
Technology: Analog optical fronthauling for 5G communication network and beyond; for generation and transport of mm waves.
Industry: 5G & Next Generation networks;
Applications: Infrastructures, Telecom;
Market: The global 5G network market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 67.4% during the forecast period (2021-2030).
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Problem Statement
- The traditional cellular Radio Access Network uses digitized radio over fiber to transport data from base band units (BBUs) to the Remote radio heads (RRHs) with CPRI, e-CPRI standards.
- Digitization requires increased processing at both BBU and RRH; multi-sector MIMO requires with large number of cell sites require data rates to the orders of Tbps for mmwave transport.
- Present patent provides an energy efficient analog fronthauling system for 5G, and beyond 5G.
- The technique may be extended for 6G applications.
Technology
- Present patent claims an optical fronthauling system for generation of mmwaves and transport of baseband analog data with reduced bandwidth.
- The components, with the proposed BBU-RRH split for analog radio-over fiber link, are shown in Figure 1.
- System comprises a laser source & a IF source, optical modulators, optical upconverter, & optical amplifier which are placed at the optical BBU.
- An optical to electrical converter including other associated components are placed at the receiver optical RRH.
- Baseband data is modulated directly or externally on IF;
- Dual parallel Mach Zehnder modulator(DPMZM) for frequency quadrupling optical signal, separated by a quadruple frequency(4ƒRF) with optical sub-carrier at (ƒ0 + 2ƒRF) & (ƒ0 – 2ƒRF).
- The final electrical signal comprises the data band at 3 frequencies (ƒIF ,4ƒRF – ƒIF , 4ƒRF + ƒIF ).
- 4ƒRF + ƒIF is filtered at RRH to retrieve RF modulated data.
- Method can be extended to multi-sector antenna with WDM.
Key Features/Value Proposition
Technical Perspective:
- Provides IF frequency (ƒIF) by upconverting 5G NR physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) frames with OFDM signal of a specific bandwidth (QPSK, 16QAM, 64QAM,& 256QAM)
- Facilitates increased processing speed & provides efficient performance as determined by standard EVM measures.
Industrial Perspective:
- The system can be applied in 5G domain including advantageous features like compact in size, cost-effective & high processing speed, low energy(refer Figure.2, 3).
Questions about this Technology?
Contact for Licensing
Research Lab
Prof. Deepa Venkitesh,
Prof. David Koilpillai,
Prof. Radhakrishna Ganti,
Department of Electrical Engineering
Intellectual Property
- IITM IDF Ref. 2279;
- Patent No:432862 (Granted);
Technology Readiness Level
TRL-3/4
Proof of Concept ready & validated