Millimeter-Wave Wireless Communication Using Dual-Wavelength Photonic Signal Generation and Photonic Upconversion

This paper presents the design and experimental analysis of a system architecture for 60-GHz broadband wireless communications. The architecture uses a dual-wavelength photonic signal source based on stimulated Brillouin scattering to generate the millimeter-wave carrier signal through photomixing. Data is encoded onto the optical signals and is upconverted directly to the millimeter-wave carrier through a photonic upconversion process, which does not require electronic upconversion. The data is encoded onto one optical wavelength in a single-sideband fashion, which affords significant dispersion tolerance over long remoting distances compared with standard double-sideband modulation. The prototype architecture was tested at ranges of 2-30 m indoors and 78 m outdoors, demonstrating a building-to-building link. Binary phase-shift keying (BPSK) and quadrature phase-shift keying (QPSK) modulation formats were tested, with BPSK data rates up to 3 Gb/s and QPSK data rates up to 2.64 Gb/s. Good bit-error ratios are demonstrated as a function of received power and range for a fixed transmit power.