A Novel Scheme to Generate Single-Sideband Millimeter-Wave Signals by Using Low-Frequency Local Oscillator Signal

We have proposed and experimentally demonstrated a novel scheme to generate optical millimeter-wave (mm-wave) signals by using single-sideband modulation with low-frequency local oscillator (LO) signals. In this architecture, by incorporating the proper dc bias of the modulator in central office, the optical mm-wave carriers are generated with two times frequency of the LO signal while largely reducing the bandwidth requirement of the modulator. We quantify the optical carrier-to-sideband ratio (CSR) of downstream transmission in this radio-over-fiber (ROF) link and establish that the performance of the ROF system can be significantly improved when the optical signals are transmitted at CSR equal to 0 dB.