Enhanced performance of an optically fed microwave communication system using a directly modulated laser transmitter with external injection

Summary form only given. One of the main technical challenges in optically fed microwave wireless networks is to generate the microwave optical data signals using semiconductor laser diodes. It has recently been shown that external injection into a laser diode may be used to enhance its modulation response. In this paper, we demonstrate that this enhancement of the modulation response allows us to greatly improve the performance of an optically fed microwave system based on direct modulation of laser diodes. A 14 dB improvement in system performance is obtained with a hybrid radio/fibre system used for distributing 155 Mbit/s data signals on an 18 GHz RF carrier