Sigma Delta Radio Frequency Transport System for 5G Sub-6 GHz Fronthauls

Abstract

The article proposes and demonstrates the real time Sigma Delta Radio over Fibre ($\Sigma\Delta$-RoF) system implementation focusing 5G cloud/centralized radio access network (C- RAN) fronthaul implementations. The $\Sigma\Delta$-RoF has been demonstrated by using 2nd order Sigma-Delta Modulation (SDM). The benchmark has been validated for 20-MHz LTE signal with 256 quadrature amplitude modulation having a carrier frequency of 3.5 GHz with 5 km of Standard Single Mode Fibre. Moreover, it is shown that by keeping the complexity low as Analog Radio Rover Fibre System (A-RoF), $\Sigma\Delta$-RoF outperforms the A-RoF. The performance is presented by reporting adjacent channel leakage ratio and error vector magnitude. It can be inferred that $\Sigma\Delta$-RoF corroborates the required range of the 5GC-RAN fronthaul networks and can be a propitious candidate for future mobile haul applications.