RoF links in the front-haul network for the future 5G communications

Fronthaul network segment of next generation 5G networks has raised concerns due to expected bandwidth limitations. Among the proposed approaches, Radio over Fiber together with Spatial Division Multiplexing appears as the best suitable solution to implement next generation 5G fronthaul. Optical generation of 5G mobile communication signals in the mmWave spectrum have been explored experimentally. This approach has been use to demonstrate RF optical links of 10km distance with up to 1000Mbps data rate for a BER below 10^-3.