Tutorial: Broadband fiber-wireless integration for 5G+ communication

The increased bandwidth demand has motivated the exploration of fiber-wireless integration (FWI) for future broadband 5G+ cellular communication networks. FWI offers ultra-wideband (UWB) wireless delivery with low interference, which will be prospective for 5G/5G+ mobile communication wireless access, military application, disaster emergency communication, broadband communication at home, and so on. As an effective carrier, millimeter-wave (mm-wave) frequencies between 30 GHz and 300 GHz are a new frontier for FWI that offers the promise of orders of magnitude greater bandwidths. In this paper, we summarize all kinds of enabling technologies for FWI, including the photonic vector mm-wave generation scheme, the integration of various multi-dimensional multiplexing techniques, radio-frequency-transparent (RF-transparent) photonic demodulation technology for fiber-wireless-fiber network, and low-complexity high-efficiency digital signal processing (DSP). Based on DSP for UWB high-spectrum-efficiency signal coherent detection, we have made great progress in the field of the mm-wave-band (from Q- to D-band) broadband signal generation and long-distance transmission. These experimental results show that FWI with large-capacity, long-distance, and high-spectrum-efficiency has important scientific and practical significance for the development of the future 5G+ wireless communication.