All-Digital Radio-Frequency Signal Distribution Via Optical Fibers

Author

Hsu, Magnus T L ; He, Yabai ; Shaddock, Daniel A. ; Warrington, Richard B. ; Gray, Malcolm B.

Author_Institution

Nat. Meas. Inst., Lindfield, NSW, Australia

Volume

24

Issue

12

fYear

2012

fDate

6/15/2012 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

1015

Lastpage

1017

Abstract

We present a radio-frequency (RF) signal distribution system via optical fibers. We utilize an all-digital platform that encompasses a phase-locked loop, numerically-controlled oscillator, and fiber phase noise cancellation system. Our system achieves a fractional frequency transfer stability of 4 × 10^-13 at 1 s and 6 × 10^-17 at one day for the distribution of RF signals over 70 km of optical fiber. We demonstrate that this performance can be achieved with standard crystal oscillators. Our system is scalable, configurable, and flexible, allowing distribution of signals at different frequencies while maintaining over two orders of magnitude of the fiber phase noise suppression.

Keywords

crystal oscillators; digital phase locked loops; digital signal processing chips; field programmable gate arrays; optical fibres; optical noise; phase noise; radiofrequency oscillators; RF signal distribution; all-digital radiofrequency signal distribution; distance 70 km; fiber phase noise cancellation system; fiber phase noise suppression; fractional frequency transfer stability; numerically-controlled oscillator; optical fibers; phase-locked loop; scalable configurable flexible system; standard crystal oscillators; time 1 day; Fiber optics; Optical noise; Phase noise; RF signals; Radio frequency; Digital signal processing (DSP); field programmable gate array (FPGA); optical fibers; phasemeter; radio-frequency (RF) signal distribution;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Photonics Technology Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1041-1135

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/LPT.2012.2193389

Filename

6178268