Mixerless 40 GHz wireless link using a photonic upconverting transmitter and a photonic downsampling receiver

Abstract

We demonstrate a mixerless architecture for 40 GHz wireless communication that allows for fiber-remoting of both the transmitter and receiver. The architecture allows for carrier frequencies into the W-band and minimizes the hardware required at the antennas. The system uses photonic upconversion to data modulate the carrier frequency for transmission and photonic downsampling to downconvert the received signal to baseband. A total data rate of 3 Gb/s is demonstrated using multiple subcarrier 16-QAM.