A 2.4-GHz Wireless-over-Fibre System Using Photonic Active Integrated Antennas (PhAIAs) in Adhoc and Infrastructure Modes

This paper describes a low-cost scheme for implementing in-building distributed antenna systems using the photonic active integrated antenna concept whereby photonic devices are integrated directly with planar antennas. Deembedded input impedance is measured for a 850nm vertical cavity surface emitting laser and a photodiode from 0-10GHz and the devices are matched directly to the non-radiating edge of a rectangular microstrip patch antenna. The fully bi-directional system is then tested over a 300m laboratory based multimode fibre link and a 220m in-building dark-fibre link. Results are shown in adhoc and infrastructure modes for throughput, signal strength and signal-to-noise ratio. The paper shows that such systems can achieve up to 10m RF range, at reduced Throughput, with no RF amplification.