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Abstract— We experimentally demonstrate a multi-user
Fiber Wireless IFoF/mmWave uplink comprising a 32-
element 60GHz Phased Array Antenna (PAA) and 10 km of
fiber for 5G fronthaul networks, supporting beamsteering
within a 120° sector and 0.6 Gb/s uplink capacity within a
5dB bandwidth of 2 GHz. The flexibility of the link is
highlighted in two 3-user scenarios with 0.6Gb/s uplink
traffic: A Frequency Division Multiplexing (FDM) scheme
with the PAA receiving isotropically at different
frequencies, and a Spatial Division Multiplexing (SDM)
scheme where the same V-band frequency is re-used by all
three users but are selectively received by the PAA using
beamsteering. Error-free transmission with 100Mbaud
QPSK per user is demonstrated for both cases, forming the
first comparison of FDM and SDM towards multi-user 5G
mmWave/IFoF networks.
Index Terms—5G mobile communication, Mobile Fronthaul,
Analog Radio-over-Fiber, mmWave, Beamsteering.
I. INTRODUCTION
HE ever growing demand for ubiquitous high bandwidth
connectivity has stimulated an unprecedented increase of
mobile traffic [1]-[4], driving a drastic transformation of mobile
networks towards the 5G era [5][6]. Emerging 5G services such
as Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) and enhanced Mobile
Broadband (eMBB) applications are placing stringent
bandwidth and latency requirements, as indicated by the 5G
Key Performance Indicators [2][3]. To enable this change,
Centralized Radio Access Network (C-RAN) architectures
have emerged as the most promising and cost-effective solution
to provide converged Fiber-Wireless (FiWi) Point-to-
MultiPoint (PtMP) network configurations [7], favoring the
seamless connectivity between a single centralized Base-Band
Unit (BBU) to various distributed Remote Radio Heads (RRHs)
[8].
The work is supported by H2020 5GPPP Phase II project 5G-PHOS
(Contract No. 761989) and 5G STEP-FWD (Contract No. 722429). The authors
would like to acknowledge Keysight for supporting the experiments with
measurement equipment.
E. Ruggeri, A. Tsakyridis, C. Vagionas, G. Kalfas, N. Pleros, A. Miliou were
with Department of Informatics, Center for Interdisciplinary Research and
At the same time, 5G promotes the introduction of millimeter
wave (mmWave) frequencies with larger available spectrum
[9], investigating several frequency bands beyond the 28 GHz
[10], such as W- or V-band [11]. While W-band has been shown
to support multi-Gb/s data rates at wireless transmission
distances above 500 m due to lower oxygen absorption
[12][13], V-band is characterized by a continuous bandwidth
allocation of 7 GHz in between 57 and 64 GHz, unlicensed or
light licensed spectrum with 15.5 dB/km path loss [11][14],
demonstrating transmission distances even beyond 100 m in
multipath indoor [15] or in Line of Sight (LoS) outdoor
environments [16], allowing for deployment in Small Cell and
FWA scenarios [17][18]. However, the larger available
spectrum in both bands allows facilitating broader user
channels and accommodate multiple parallel wireless links for
multi-user environments. At the same time, recent rapid
developments in mmWave massive MIMO and large scale
Phased Array Antennas (PAA) towards enhanced beamforming
and beamsteering capabilities allow for achieving directional
links and high antenna gains, that may compensate the path loss
and allow for intra-cell frequency reuse [19]. These rapid
advances in the RAN segment are yet expected to place a
significant load on the underlying mobile fronthaul
infrastructure, raising already serious concerns for the
suitability of the Common Public Radio Interface (CPRI) and
its excess bandwdith requirements [20][21].
Bandwidth efficiency in the mobile fronthaul segment is
definitely the stronghold of Analog-Radio over Fiber (A-RoF)
schemes, were native radio signals are transported directly on
an optical carrier without requiring any extra bandwidth
overhead [22]. Despite the fact that A-RoF schemes typically
require a more challenging power budget with less dynamic
range compared to Digital RoF [23], they have been
demonstrated to support frequency channel aggregation of
multiple LTE user channels [24] and broad bandwidth radio
streams with up to 1Tb/s CPRI equivalent rate [25], gaining
increasing popularity for applications in high-density and high-
capacity 5G small cell networks [26][27]. Consequently,
intense research efforts have shifted focus towards developing
Innovation, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54636 (e-mail:
chvagion@csd.auth.gr).
Y. Leiba is with Siklu Communications Ltd. Petach Tikva, Israel (e-mail:
yigal@siklu.com).
Eugenio Ruggeri, Apostolos Tsakyridis, Christos Vagionas, Yigal Leiba, George Kalfas, Nikos Pleros,
Amalia Miliou
Multi-user V-band uplink using a massive
MIMO antenna and a fiber-wireless IFoF
fronthaul for 5G mmWave small-cells
T
This is the author's version of an article that has been published in this journal. Changes were made to this version by the publisher prior to publication.
The final version of record is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/JLT.2020.2984374
(c) 2020 European Union Copyright. Personal use is permitted. For any other purposes, permission must be obtained from the IEEE by emailing pubs-permissions@ieee.org.
2
converged FiWi A-RoF mmWave links with multiple
frequency aggregated bands or different analog modulation
schemes [22], e.g. RF-over-Fiber or Intermediate Frequency
over Fiber (IFoF), aiming to prepare the underlying end-to-end
infrastructure of the mobile network for the next crest of the
wave of high aggregate capacities foreseen in the forthcoming
5G mmWave C-RAN architectures. Predominant recent
demonstrations of such FiWi links have achieved wireless
transmission of up to 4.56Gb/s in the 28 GHz band [28], 24Gb/s
in the 60 GHz band [29]-[31] and 45 Gb/s in the 98 GHz band
[32], associated with and supporting both single carrier
[25],[29]-[32] or multi-carrier [24],[28] waveforms, while some
first holistic approaches including both protocol and physical
layer issues have declared their presence for Hot-Spot [33] and
Railway [34][35] applications.
However, most physical layer demonstrations rely so far on
fixed horn antennas with static gains [28]-[32], which are
certainly inappropriate to support beamsteering functionality
and can only perform in single Point-to-Point (PtP) links,
suggesting a rather limited portfolio for the flexibility and
reconfigurability required by the 5G fronthaul network.
Towards engineering PtMP FiWi network topologies that can
sustain multi-user small-cells, a few antenna prototypes have
very recently accomplished to merge mmWave PAAs with
IFoF enabling flexible beamsteering, demonstrating a 28GHz
PAA prototype in a downlink transmission of eight frequency
aggregated 125MHz channels [36], which was later extended in
a 2x2 MIMO demonstration [37]. Along the same development
line, a single user FiWi 60 GHz uplink with beamsteering
within a ±15° sector was presented in [38], while a 4-channel
beamforming Rx antenna was shown to support steering of a
single stream at up to 60° angle [39]. However, all these links
have been either limited in single beam transmissions [36][38]
or even single data-stream through wired RoF setups [39], still
validating only simple PtP links towards a single source of data-
traffic and failing to experimentally verify a true PtMP FiWi
network. The only PtMP FiWi IFoF links that have been
reported so far relied on the use of either Leaky Wave Antennas
[40] or polarization dependent optical beamforming networks
[41], with the former supporting only static passive frequency
selective steering towards fixed angular directions, impeding in
this way spatial beamsteering and frequency reuse. To date,
merging spectrally efficient IFoF with V-band MIMO antenna
for PtMP links has been only recently demonstrated by the
authors in [42], investigating the IFoF uplink scenario from
three terminals placed at the discrete angular positions of +50o,
0 o and -50 o degrees of a 100o sector, using either Frequency
Division Multiplexing (FDM) or Spatial Division Multiplexing
(SDM), yet still not meeting the EVM requirements set for 5G
networks[43].
In the present communication, we extend our previous
preliminary works [38][42] by experimentally demonstrating a
more detailed performance evaluation of the PtMP FiWi
mWave/IFoF system across a 1200 sector for application in
multi-user uplink transmissions for 5G fronthaul networks. The
proposed end-to-end FiWi system employs three physical V-
band directional transmitters, an analog 32-elements PAA
Receiver prototype, a Mach Zehnder-Modulator (MZM) and
10km of SMF fiber spool. We initially present a detailed
frequency response for the end-to-end FiWi link with optimized
operational conditions, revealing a 5 dB bandwidth of 2 GHz
and showing QPSK and 16-QAM transmissions up to 0.6 Gb/s
at 59.77 GHz central frequency, that all satisfy the 5G KPI
requirements for the uplink user rates [2][43]. Moreover, its
performance is for the first time evaluated either isotropically
or in beamsteering mode using a 15°-degree step within a 120°
sector, revealing a nearly flat EVM response and almost-equal
performance at any angle. Finally, by exploiting the operation
duality of the PAA and the more detailed single user evaluation,
two multi-user FiWi PtMP network scenarios are
experimentally demonstrated and compared: a FDM scenario,
where the PAA receives isotropically the uplink streams of
three V-band users each at a different frequency and different
angular position, utilizing subcarrier multiplexing, as shown in
Fig. 1(a), and a SDM scenario, where the three users
simultaneously transmit at the same frequency and the PAA
selectively steers the beam to any of the three users, effectively
deploying frequency reuse, as shown in Fig. 1(b). With both
FDM and SDM scenarios featuring improved results with
respect to [42], while satisfying the 3GPP requirements [43],
the presented work paves the way for multi-user FiWi PtMP
IFoF/V-band coverage across 120o sector for 5G mmWave
small cell networks.
II. EXPERIMENTAL SETUP OF THE FIBER-WIRELESS IFOF LINK
The experimental setup is depicted in Fig. 2(a), comprising
a V-band wireless PtMP link for radio access and an IFoF
optical link for spectrally efficient fronthauling. The data traffic
is launched into the three portable V-Band transmitters and,
after 1 meter of wireless propagation Over-the-Air (OTA), the
three wireless signals are received by the beamsteerable PAA
prototype, which has been manufactured by Siklu. The received
data signals at the output of the PAA are down-converted to a
central IF frequency of 5GHz, that subsequently drives a zero-
chirp MZM so as to be imprinted in the optical domain and
optically transported through 10km SMF fiber spool up to an
Avalanche Photo Diode (APD), opto-electrically converted and
fed to a Signal Analyzer (SA) for evaluation purposes.
Fig. 1 - a) FDM concept exploiting isotropic reception and multi-carrier
transmission. b) SDM concept exploiting beamsteered reception to achieve
spatial division.
This is the author's version of an article that has been published in this journal. Changes were made to this version by the publisher prior to publication.
The final version of record is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/JLT.2020.2984374
(c) 2020 European Union Copyright. Personal use is permitted. For any other purposes, permission must be obtained from the IEEE by emailing pubs-permissions@ieee.org.
3
Fig. 2(b) presents a top view photo of the wireless setup. In
particular, 100 MBaud QPSK data traffic is generated by two
Arbitrary Waveform Generators (AWGs), one (Keysight
M8195A) for the first two transmitters, i.e. TX#1 and TX#2,
and a second AWG (Keysight M8190A) for the third
transmitter, i.e. TX#3. Both TX#2 and TX#3 transmitters
comprise a V-band up-conversion module (gotMIC
gTSC0020), operating in the 57-64 GHz range and feature a
mixing stage to perform up-conversion by means of a 14 dBm
9.5 GHz clock signal, generated by an external PLL (PmT). At
the RF output of the up-conversion board, a horn antenna
element (Quinstar) featuring 22.5 dBi gain and 10° beamwidth
is attached and interfaced to the board using RF waveguides.
The up-conversion stage’s driver is supplied by two DC current
sources of -5V and +5V and the PLL is supplied with 13V. On
the other hand, TX#1comprises a packaged 36 dBi Siklu
antenna, with a beamwidth of 10°, and a comparable up-
conversion stage featuring an integrated Local Oscillator (LO).
All three transmitters employ differential 𝐼/𝐼̅ and 𝑄/Q
̅ input
configuration, with average RF power up to +1 dBm.
A beamsteerable PAA from Siklu is employed, including 32
radiating elements was used at the receiving side, after 1 meter
of V-band wireless distance, which was selected mainly due to
limitations of indoor laboratory evaluation and available
cabling [28]. The PAA operates in the 57-64 GHz range and is
composed of a Control PCB and a Tile Feed PCB board, as
depicted in Fig. 2(c), with the former hosting also the 32-
element array tile at its frontpanel, referred to as Tile PCB and
shown in Fig. 2(d). The Control PCB is interfaced to a PC using
a Qualcomm QCA9008 Modem and drives the Tile Feed PCB
operation, enabling phase and gain control over the array’s
elements. The 32-element array Tile PCB is integrated on a
low-temperature ceramic with each radiating element being a 6
dBi dipole and featuring an almost isotropic radiation across a
120° angle. Specifically, each of the 32 elements’ output feeds
a Linear Noise Amplifier (LNA) and an electrically tunable φ-
phase shifting element. All the outputs are merged by a 32:1
combiner, followed by a down-conversion stage, which
generates a -2 dBm 5 GHz IF data output, by means of a 10
GHz clock signal of 11 dBm externally generated by a Signal
Generator (Anritsu MG3692B).
The PAA design allows to control the Tile PCB array’s
phase shifters and to turn ON/OFF each of the 32 elements
independently. When a single element is active, the overall
behavior is isotropic across 120°, being in this way capable of
supporting FDM uplink communication, as depicted in Fig.
1(a), where the three transmitters operate at different
frequencies and are simultaneously received by the PAA within
the available frequency spectrum. On the other hand, when all
elements are active, the resulting radiation pattern shows a 10°
main beam width, steerable towards a desired spatial direction
among [+60°, -60°] angular range, thus emulating the SDM
scenario depicted in Fig. 1(b) where the three transmitters emit
their wireless signals from three different angular locations, i.e.
-45°, 0°, +45°, at the same wireless carrier frequency, and the
PAA spatially selects the desired user over the other 2
interfering antenna transmissions. Due to the simultaneous use
of all 32 elements, the PAA’s Tile Feed PCB drains an electrical
current up to 1.6A in beamsteering mode that decreases to 1.2A
when operating in isotropic mode with only one antenna
element being activated.
The wirelessly received data signal is then down-converted
by the PAA to a central IF frequency of 5 GHz and amplified
by a driver amplifier (Picosecond 5865) before being fed to the
zero chirp LiNbO3 MZM biased at the quadrature point. A DFB
Laser Source (LS) generates the 1550 nm optical carrier which
is modulated by the MZM, imprinting the 5 GHz IF data signal
on the optical carrier. This signal is then transported over a 10
km SMF fiber spool (0.2 dB/Km), emulating a typical Mobile
Fronthaul (MFH) path. Finally, the data signal is opto-
electrically converted by a 10 GHz InGaAs Avalanche Photo-
Receiver (APD) and evaluated in the Signal Analyzer (Keysight
UXA N9040B) using constellation diagrams and EVM
measurements.
Fig. 3 - a) Frequency response of the full end-to-end V-band FiWi link: 3 dB,
5 dB and 10 dB bandwidth. b) Dynamic characterization: 150 MBaud 16-
QAM. c) Dynamic characterization: 300 MBaud QPSK. d) 300 MBaud QPSK
spectrum.
Fig. 2 – a) Experimental setup: wireless components are displayed in light
blue background, optics in yellow. Photo of b) the wireless setup (top view),
c) PAA Rx zoom-in, and d) the 32-elements Tile PCB.
This is the author's version of an article that has been published in this journal. Changes were made to this version by the publisher prior to publication.
The final version of record is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/JLT.2020.2984374
(c) 2020 European Union Copyright. Personal use is permitted. For any other purposes, permission must be obtained from the IEEE by emailing pubs-permissions@ieee.org.
4
III. CHARACTERIZATION OF THE FIBER-WIRELESS IFOF LINK
The FiWi link is initially characterized in terms of the
available bandwidth and high data-rate transmission,
considering single-user operation and employing TX#1 only,
while the PAA is set to operate in isotropic mode. Fig. 3(a)
reports the measured frequency response of the full FiWi link
by sweeping a single IF tone, showing the supported bandwidth
and the available frequency spectrum. A single tone was
initially transmitted from TX#1 at an IF that was swept from
3.25 GHz to 6 GHz, corresponding to a mmWave wireless
range of 58.75 GHz to 61.5 GHz, and the APD’s output power
was measured. The proposed V-band FiWi link exhibited a non-
perfectly flat response across 500 MHz (between 4.2 and 4.7
GHz, corresponding to 59.7 GHz and 60.2 GHz over the air)
and non-optimal gain-fluctuations, e.g. with a local minimum
around the 5.25 GHz IF. The overall 5 dB bandwidth was
measured to be 2 GHz, revealing the potential to accommodate
the traffic from multiple simultaneous users over different
frequency carriers.
Following the static bandwidth measurement of the link, a
dynamic characterization was also carried out in single-user
high-data rate transmission. A 0.6 Gb/s data stream was
successfully transmitted employing both a 150 MBaud 16-
QAM and a 300 MBaud QPSK data signal, and a roll-off factor
of 0.35 for both, thus occupying a bandwidth of 405 MHz and
202.5 MHz, with the corresponding constellation diagrams
presented in Fig. 3(b) and (c), respectively, while the received
RF spectrum for the latter case is shown in Fig. 3(d), revealing
a Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) value of up to 26 dB. The
achieved EVM values of 11.51% and 17.12%, for QPSK and
16-QAM transmission respectively, are satisfying both the 0.5
Gb/s Uplink KPI requirements set by 5G expert alliances [2] as
well as the defined 3GPP thresholds, i.e. 17.5% for QPSK and
12.5% for 16-QAM [43]. Finally, the dynamic response and
linearity of the link has been characterized for single user beam
data transmission using two tone measurements in [38] across
7 dBm of RF input power range for the wireless part, which
would correspond to 450 m V-band distance [44] and 17 dBm
input optical power range for the fiber segment, revealing the
dynamic range supported by the proposed FiWi system.
IV. EXPERIMENTAL EVALUATION OF MULTI-USER
FIBER-WIRELESS TRANSMISSIONS
The performance of the proposed V-band FiWi link
configuration was then benchmarked in multi-user transmission
environments and compared against the respective single user
transmission scenario, considering each time the same user-data
rates, frequencies and angular positions. Two multi-user
scenarios were investigated across the end-to-end link, with the
PAA receiver either configured in isotropic mode for FDM
operation or in beamsteering mode for the SDM operation.
I. Single-User investigation towards FDM and SDM
The first single-user scenario was carried out with the PAA
receiver set on isotropic mode, transmitting from TX#1 the
same 100 MBaud QPSK waveform over several frequency
carriers, aiming to evaluate the transmission performances
among the available spectral regions. The lowest obtained EVM
values, i.e. 14.42%, 16.51% and 16.27%, corresponding to the
mmWave carrier frequencies of 59.3 GHz, 59.8 GHz and 60.7
GHz, are displayed in Fig. 4, revealing performances well
below the mentioned 3GPP threshold of 17.5% for QPSK, thus
exhibiting the possibility of a simultaneous multi-carrier
operation.
For the second single-user case, the link was characterized
in terms of EVM versus transmission angle, to evaluate the
impact of beamsteering operation when transmitting a 100
MBaud QPSK signal. In this case, the PAA was operating in
beamsteering mode, steering the main lobe towards TX#1,
which was in-turn physically moved and placed at different
angular positions, as shown in Fig. 5(a), following 15° steps
among the [-60°, +60°] range, while maintaining a constant
distance of 1m from the PAA. The 15° step value was chosen
as it is comparable to the beamwidth of 10° and, experimentally
the minimum value to appreciate consistent performance
variation. The EVM obtained for each angle across the [-60°,
+60°] range are plotted in Fig. 5(b), showing a fairly small
EVM variance of less than 0.5% around an average EVM of
13.8% (values between 13.65% and 14.1%), demonstrating
Fig. 4 - Single user transmissions performed at the same three frequency
carriers used for the FDM scenario, with the PAA receiver in isotropic mode.
Fig. 5 - a) TX#1’s angles sweep range. b) EVM vs transmission angle plot. The inset constellation diagrams are corresponding to the transmission from -45°, 0°
and +45°, from left to right.
This is the author's version of an article that has been published in this journal. Changes were made to this version by the publisher prior to publication.
The final version of record is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/JLT.2020.2984374
(c) 2020 European Union Copyright. Personal use is permitted. For any other purposes, permission must be obtained from the IEEE by emailing pubs-permissions@ieee.org.
5
almost-equal performance for the beamsteering operation
across the aforementioned range of angles. In particular, the
three insets of Fig. 5(b) are showing the constellation diagrams
resulting from the single-user transmissions performed at the
selected angles of -45°, 0° and +45°, exhibiting almost identical
behavior. Some additional phase noise is present at the
constellation diagrams of beamsteered transmissions, when
compared to the constellation diagrams in Fig. 4, attributed to
the use of multiple phase shifting elements, however the EVM
performance improves up to 2.86%, mainly due to the increased
antenna gain and better concentration of the wirelessly received
RF power in beamsteering operation.
II. Multi-User transmission in FDM and SDM.
Multi-user uplink communication was evaluated for two
different multiplexing schemes, i.e. FDM and SDM. In both
cases, the FiWi link was tested having the three V-band
transmitters simultaneously emitting from the -45°, 0° and +45°
angular positions, as depicted in Fig. 2(a). Due to different
internal amplification stages of the three portable transmitters,
the I/Q data input signal powers for TX#1, TX#2 and TX#3
have been adjusted in order to transmit at equal power levels.
In the FDM case, the three transmitters are simultaneously
radiating at the three previously identified mmWave frequency
carriers, i.e. 59.3 GHz, 59.8 GHz and 60.7 GHz (IF frequencies
of 3.8GHz, 4.3GHz and 5.2GHz), as shown in the received RF
spectrum in Fig 6(a). The PAA is configured in isotropic mode
by activating just a single element of the array, accommodating
for all users scattered within a 120° sector. After the 10km of
fiber propagation and the opto-electric conversion at the APD,
the three constellation diagrams are shown in Fig. 6(b)-(d),
obtained by adjusting the monitoring bandwidth of the SA
selectively at each of the three frequency carriers, while all
transmissions were taking place simultaneously. The EVM
values recorded for each of the three 100 MBaud QPSK
transmitted signals were 17.48%, 17.19% and 17.43%
respectively, as obtained by the SA and without applying any
additional DSP (Digital Signal Processing), all still satisfying
the 3GPPP EVM threshold of 17.5% for QPSK [43]. The
average EVM penalty of the three transmissions was calculated
around 1.63% with respect to the single-user transmissions
performed over the same frequency carriers, shown in Fig. 4.
In the SDM case, the three transmitters are still operating
simultaneously but, this time, over the same frequency carrier,
i.e. 60.3 GHz (IF frequency of 4.8GHz). The reception is thus
performed with the PAA configured in beamsteering mode,
achieving spatial division by activating all 32 elements of the
array and then tuning the 32 respective Tile PCB phase shifters
so as to steer the main beam in the desired direction and point
at TX#1, TX#2 and TX#3 placed at -45°, 0° and +45°,
respectively. Fig. 6(e) shows the spectrum of the three
superimposed signals, as received at the SA, after the end-to-
end FiWi transmissions. The obtained corresponding
constellation diagrams are shown in Fig. 6(f)-(h), along with the
respective EVM values of 17.26%, 17.45% and 17.23%,
demonstrating that the multi-user SDM operation can be still
performed within the required 3GPPP threshold values for each
transmitter, regardless of the simultaneous re-use of the exact
same wireless and optical intermediate frequency channel. The
presented SDM scenario showed an average EVM penalty of
3.6% with respect to the three angular single-user transmissions
in Fig. 5(b). The main source of this penalty is in-band
interference induced by the signals radiated by the other two Tx
terminals, since all three V-band links use the same frequency.
Consequently, the RF spectrum of the finally received signal
for the SDM case features a Signal to Interference and Noise
Ratio (SINR) of 18 dB, as shown in the measurement in Fig.
6(e).
V. CONCLUSIONS
The first multi-user end-to-end IFoF V-band FiWi uplink
was demonstrated for 5G mmWave networks, employing three
portable transmitters, a 32-elements Phased Array Antenna
Receiver with beamsteering capabilities and 10 km of SMF
fiber spool. Single-user uplink at a 0.6 Gb/s wireless data-rate
Fig. 6 – Experimental results for the multi-user transmissions, including for the FDM scenario: (a) Spectrum of the 3 distinct data signals around the received IF
frequency of 5 GHz (corresponding to 60.5 GHz in mmWave) and (b)(c)(d) Constellation diagrams of each simultaneous transmission, and for the SDM Scenario:
(e) Spectrum of the 3 superimposed data signals at the received IF frequency of 5 GHz (corresponding to 60.5 GHz in mmWave). (f)(g)(h) Constellation diagrams
of each simultaneous transmission.
This is the author's version of an article that has been published in this journal. Changes were made to this version by the publisher prior to publication.
The final version of record is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/JLT.2020.2984374
(c) 2020 European Union Copyright. Personal use is permitted. For any other purposes, permission must be obtained from the IEEE by emailing pubs-permissions@ieee.org.
6
has been successfully validated with a PAA Rx antenna that
supports a 5dB bandwidth of 2GHz and beamsteering
capabilities at any angle across a 120° sector, with 3-user uplink
communication offering the same aggregate data-rate being
successfully accomplished exploiting either Frequency or
Spatial Division Multiplexing. Experimental comparison
reveals that both FDM and SDM can allow for EVM
performance within the 3GPP KPI limits for QPSK modulation
schemes. This analysis confirms that FDM and transmission
over three different carrier frequencies can be activated when a
single 5G antenna has to serve multiple users within the same
small-cell, while the availability of multiple mmWave massive
MIMO antennas can be utilized for SDM communication when
V-band and IFoF frequency reuse in higher user-density 5G
small cells have to be employed. The present work forms the
first experimental demonstration of multi-user FiWi IFoF
mmWave link, paving the way towards spectrally efficient C-
RAN architectures for high-capacity and high-density 5G small
cell environments.
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