Fiber-optic antenna remoting for multisector cellular cell sites

The use of an RF analog fiber-optic link for connecting a multisector remote cell site to the base station in a cellular communication system is described. These links can be used to connect a number of multisector remote cell sites to a centrally located base station. An entire fiber-optic link, from RF input at the laser to the RF output of the photodetector, is treated as a single RF component. The expressions for its gain and noise figure are derived. These expressions are then used in a cascading formula to predict the overall system performance when additional RF components, such as mixers and amplifiers, were cascaded with the fiber-optic link. A discussion of the selection of intermediate frequencies for minimum intermodulation products is presented. Measured performance and curves for design tradeoffs are also included