Radio Over Fiber Technology for the Next Generation Hamed Al-Raweshidy
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4 Radio over Fiber Technology for the Next Generation Hamed Al-Raweshidy 4.1 Introduction Chapters 1 and 2 have presented the main elements of the optical devices and the parameters related to radio over fiber: laser diode performance, intermodulation, RIN, and clipping noise. This chapter discusses in more detail the system performance of radio over fiber on Universal Mobile Tele- communication System/wideband code-division multiple access (UMTS/ WCDMA). We start with an introduction to UMTS and WCDMA with an overview of radio over fiber technology for the UMTS system. The advantages and disadvantages of radio over fiber technology for third-genera- tion (3G) and fourth-generation (4G) systems are also discussed. In addition, a simulation for both radio and optical systems is presented. Furthermore, an analytical model for evaluating the performance of WCDMA-based radio over fiber systems with numerical results showed an improvement in perfor- mance when the effect of voice activity monitoring on intermodulation distortion and clipping noise was taken into account. 4.2 Radio over Fiber Systems Recently, optical fiber microcellular systems, in which microcells in a wide area are connected by optical fibers and radio signals are transmitted over 183 184 Radio over Fiber Technologies for Mobile Communications Networks an optical fiber link among base stations and control stations, has attracted much attention [1]. This is because of the low loss and enormous bandwidth of optical fiber, the increasing demand for capacity/coverage, and the benefits it offers in terms of low-cost base station deployment in microcellular systems, all of which make it an ideal candidate for realizing microcellular networks [1, 2]. In such a system, each microcell radio port would consist of a simple and compact optoelectronic repeater connected by an RF fiber optic link to centralized radio and control equipment, possibly located at a preexisting macrocell site. Use of RF antenna remoting allows changes to the system frequency plan or modulation format to be done at a central location, without the need to modify any radio port equipment. Antenna remoting should also simplify the provision of system features such as rapid handover, dynamic channel assignment, and diversity combining. This system will make extensive use of microcells and picocells in order to deliver high bandwidth. Such microcell systems can solve the frequency limitation problem because a number of base stations can be installed, the zone radius can be reduced, and the radio frequencies can be reused effectively in many radio zones [3]. The much lower power level eliminates the need for the expensive frequency multiplexes or high-power amplifiers currently employed at base stations. The limited coverage due to low antenna height greatly reduces the cochannel interference from other cells [4]. Radio over fiber (RoF) systems are now being used extensively for enhanced cellular coverage inside buildings such as offices, shopping malls, and airport terminals [1, 2, 5]. The WCDMA air interface can now be regarded as a mature technology that is ready to provide the basis for the third-generation wireless personal communication system known as the UMTS [3, 6]. These systems will make extensive use of microcells and picocells in order to deliver high-bandwidth services to customers. The benefit of using RoF for WCDMA distributed antenna systems is expected to be even more important, partly because of their higher frequency and bandwidth requirements [1, 2]. Two key features are expected to be employed in the UMTS system to minimize multiple-user interference: adaptive antenna arrays and fast closed-loop forward and reverse power control techniques [7; see also http://www.3gpp.org]. Other important techniques that are used to reduce multiple-user interference are cell sectorization and voice activity monitoring, particularly in speech-oriented cellular systems [8, 9]. The UMTS is designed to support simultaneous transmission of multiple services and data rates including video. One of the major drawbacks Radio over Fiber Technology for the Next Generation 185 in RoF systems is laser diode nonlinearity, which gives rise to intermodulation distortion and clipping noise. It is well known that intermodulation distortion and clipping noise are signal level dependent [10]. We envisage that in WCDMA RoF systems, voice activity monitoring will have an impact not only on multiple-user interference, but also on intermodulation distortion and clipping noise power. A full analysis for intermodulation distortion was given in Chapters 1 and 2, and Chapter 3 provides details of the dynamic range of microcellular systems. 4.3 Cellular Architecture Increases in demand and the poor quality of existing service led mobile service providers to research ways to improve the quality of service and to support more users in their systems. In modern cellular telephony, rural and urban regions are divided into areas according to specific provisioning guidelines. Deployment parameters, such as amount of cell splitting and cell sizes, are determined by engineers experienced in cellular system architecture. 4.3.1 Cell A cell is the basic geographic unit of a cellular system. The term cellular comes from the honeycomb shape of the areas into which a coverage region is divided. Cells are base stations transmitting over small geographic areas that are represented as hexagons. Each cell size varies depending on the landscape. Because of constraints imposed by natural terrain and man-made structures, the true shape of cells is not a perfect hexagon. Based on the radius of the cells, there are three types of cellular networks: macrocells, microcells, and picocells. 4.3.2 Macrocellular A macrocellular network is deployed using relatively large cells with a diameter of 16 to 48 km. This creates a substantial footprint with significantly fewer sectors. A regional switching center controls all of the traffic within a market and interconnection with the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN). Capacity can be modularly upgraded by adding sectors to existing sites to facilitate subscriber growth. 186 Radio over Fiber Technologies for Mobile Communications Networks 4.3.3 Microcellular Microcellular radio networks are used in areas with high traffic density, like suburban areas. The cells have radii between 200m and 1 km. For such small cells, it is hard to predict traffic densities and area coverage. 4.3.4 Picocells Picocells or indoor cells have radii between 10 and 200m. Today, picocellular radio system are used for wireless office communications. 4.4 UMTS Architecture 4.4.1 General Architecture Figure 4.1 shows the assumed UMTS architecture as outlined in European Telecommunication Standards Institute (ETSI)/SMG. The figure shows the architecture in terms of its user equipment (UE), UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN), and core network (CN). The respective reference points are Uu (radio interface) and Iu (CN-UTRAN interface) [6]. 4.4.2 WCDMA for 3G Cellular Systems Third-generation mobile radio networks have been under intense research and discussion recently and were scheduled to emerge in 2001. Emerging requirements for high-rate data services and better spectrum efficiency are the main drivers identified for these 3G mobile systems [6]. In the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), 3G networks are called International Mobile Telecommunications 2000 (IMT 2000), and in Europe, Universal Mobile Telecommunications Systems. The main objective of the IMT 2000 air interface can be summarized as follows: • Full coverage and mobility for 144 Kbps, preferably 384 Kbps; • Limited coverage and mobility for 2 Mbps; • High spectrum efficiency compared to existing systems; • High flexibility to introduce new services. Wideband direct sequence code-division multiple access (DS-CDMA) has emerged as the mainstream air interface solution for the 3G networks Radio over Fiber Technology for the Next Generation 187 Figure 4.1 UMTS architecture. due to its numerous advantages over TDMA and frequency-division multiple access (FDMA). These advantages include the use of soft handover for macrodiversity, the exploitation of multipath fading through RAKE combin- ing, and a direct capacity increase as a result of the use of cell sectorization. However, the air interface standardization seems to focus on two main types of WCDMA: network asynchronous and network synchronous. In network asynchronous schemes, the base stations are not synchro- nized, whereas in network synchronous schemes, the base stations are synchro- nized to each other within a few microseconds. ETSI and the Association of Radio Industries and Businesses in Japan have chosen to develop a common WCDMA air interface standard, based on an asynchronous network for frequency-division duplex (FDD) bands. The important concept of WCDMA is the introduction of intercell asynchronous operation and a user-dedicated pilot channel. Intercell asyn- 188 Radio over Fiber Technologies for Mobile Communications Networks chronous operation facilitates continuous system deployment from outdoors to indoors. Other technical features of WCDMA are summarized next [6, 7; see also http://www.3gpp.org]: • Fast cell search under intercell asynchronous operation; • Fast transmit power control on both reverse (mobile-to-base station) and forward (base station-to-mobile) links; • Coherent spreading code tracking; • Coherent RAKE reception on both links; • Orthogonal variable spreading factors in the