Millimeter Wave Switching in Radio over Fiber Networks using Semiconductor Optical Amplifier (SOA)

5G wireless communication systems promise efficient spectrum utilization, advanced modulation and access techniques, and high data rate. To obtain these requirements, millimeter wave (MMW) signals and subsystems are the most suitable to be used. The Modules and devices, proposed for these networks, are intended to use the efficient capabilities of photonic technologies. In this paper, a photonics-based millimeter wave switch, for orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) signals, is proposed by exploiting the nonlinear effects in semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs). This includes four wave mixing (FWM), self-phase modulation (SPM) and cross-gain modulation (XGM). A 10 Gbps/16QAM-OFDM signal carried over 30 GHz MMW carrier is considered for signal switching. Moreover, we studied the up- and down-wavelength conversion schemes, in terms of probe and pump signal’s power. Furthermore, we investigate the effects of SOA’s injection current and wavelength spacing between the two injected beams that enable optical single sideband (OSSB) generation and switching. Simulation results show possibility of transmitting and switching OFDM signal with 1 x10-3and 13 % rms symbol error rate (SER) and error vector magnitude (EVM), at -22 dBm received power. The simulation is carried out using Virtual Photonic Integrated (VPI) software.