Review of Glass and Polymer Multimode Fibers Used in a Wimedia Ultrawideband MB-OFDM Radio Over Fiber System

In this paper, we have exhibited the potential of the glass- and polymer-based multimode fibers to be used in a radio over fiber (ROF) system in order to extend the indoor coverage of the Wimedia multiband orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (MB-OFDM) ultrawideband (UWB) standard. After the design of a test setup operating at 850 nm, we have performed the physical characterization of the ROF system especially the mask test compliance, the error vector magnitude (EVM), or the relative constellation error (RCE) variation as a function of the system parameters [radio frequency (RF) power, optical attenuation, fiber length, laser bias current]. The transmission performance of both 200 and 480 Mb/s Wimedia signals is demonstrated through a 100 m link length of glass- and polymer-based multimode fibers: transmission penalties are quantified by RCE with values under the standard requirements. Two different behaviors depending on the core material of the fiber have been identified in this study.