Received February 26, 2017, accepted March 13, 2017, date of publication March 15, 2017, date of current version May 17, 2017.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/ACCESS.2017.2683064
Optimizing OSSB Generation Using
Semiconductor Optical Amplifier (SOA) for 5G
Millimeter Wave Switching
FADHEL SAADAOUI1 , MOHAMED FATHALLAH1 , AMR M. RAGHEB2,3 , MUHAMMAD IRFAN
MEMON4 , HABIB FATHALLAH2,3,5 , (Senior Member, IEEE), AND SALEH A. ALSHEBEILI2,3
1 Department
of Physics, Ecole Nationale Superieure d’ingenieurs de Tunis, University of Tunis, Tunis 1007, Tunisia
Engineering Department, King Saud University, Riyadh 11421, Saudi Arabia
in Radio Frequency and Photonics for the e-Society, King Saud University, Riyadh 11421, Saudi Arabia
4 Department of Computer Science, University of Lahore, Lahore 54000, Pakistan
5 Computer Department, College of Science of Bizerte, University of Carthage, Tunis 1054, Tunisia
2 Electrical
3 KACST-TIC
Corresponding author: A. Ragheb (aragheb@ksu.edu.sa)
This work was supported by the Deanship of Scientific Research, College of Engineering Center, King Saud University.
ABSTRACT Millimeter waves (MMWs), operating at 30–300 GHz band, are very promising to the nextgeneration 5G wireless communication systems, enabling data rates of multi Gbps per user. Photonic
technology is increasingly considered to play a key role in a wide range of MMW devices, modules, and
subsystems that are essential to successfully build next generation MMW-based 5G networks. This work
considers the switching function of MMWs exploiting nonlinearity in photonic devices. In this paper, we
perform a systematic investigation of the optimum operating conditions that enable an optical single sideband
wavelength conversion, by exploiting the nonlinear effects in a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA).
This principle of switching carefully exploits SOA’s four-wave mixing, cross-gain modulation in addition
to self-phase modulation effects. The key parameters under investigation include the injection current,
the wavelength spacing between the probe and the pump signals in addition to their respective powers.
We experimentally determine the optimal operating conditions that maximize the sideband suppression ratio
and simultaneously reduce the useless left sideband signal intensity, leading to a dispersion free transmission
in optical fiber. Further, we experimentally demonstrate a photonic-based MMW switch of MMW signals
having 30 GHz frequency and carrying 3 Gbaud/QPSK modulated signals. A 14-dB sideband suppression
ratio of modulated signal is reported.
INDEX TERMS Photonic switching, semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA), optical single sideband
(OSSB), sideband suppression ratio (SSR).
I. INTRODUCTION
The exponential increase in the need for high-speed wireless network with large bandwidth, have motivated for
the employment of millimeter wave (MMW) carrier frequencies for future next generation 5G networks [1].
Furthermore, carrier frequency escalation is being considered
a key area of attention due to its applications in unprecedented data rate transfers, enabling uncompressed highdefinition media transfers, sensing and radar applications,
virtual instantaneous access to massive libraries of information network clouds, and Internet-of-things (IOT) applications [2]. Indeed, Network speed and capacity enhancement is
considered as one of the innovative engineering solutions for
VOLUME 5, 2017
next generation (5G and 6G) communication systems [3], [4].
These solutions stress on small cell and massive multi input
multi output (MIMO) concepts, network speed, and capacity
enhancement.
The establishment of next generation wireless networks,
based on millimeter wave technology will require the development of a wide range of mature, efficient, and cost effective devices and modules that perform various functions in
the network. Photonics technology is inherently high speed,
broadband, and of low loss. Further, it is a promising solution to break the bottleneck and limitations in the area of
microwave [5]–[7]. It will inevitably play a key role at the
core of these functions and sub-systems. Photonic-based
2169-3536 2017 IEEE. Translations and content mining are permitted for academic research only.
Personal use is also permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
6715
F. Saadaoui et al.: Optimizing OSSB Generation Using SOA for 5G MMW Switching
TABLE 1. Comparison of recent demonstrations of wireless over fiber systems.
devices and settings are increasingly proposed to achieve
signal processing functions that are essential for the generation and detection of MMW signals. In fact, a number of
ways have recently been demonstrated in order to produce
MMW frequencies using photonics, including photonic mixing [8]–[11], four wave mixing (FWM) in SOA [4], quantum
cascade lasers [12], and laser pulse techniques [13]. Additionally, photonics have been widely incorporated in radio
over fiber (RoF) systems and microwave modules including
multiplexing/de-multiplexing [14], frequency tripling [15],
and radio frequency (RF) switching [16].
In this respect, an increasing number of demonstrations
have been reported in literature with regards to indoor and
outdoor fiber wireless (FiWi) transmission in V, W, and
J bands [17]–[25]. In the V-band (40-60GHz) much interest is
considered for next generation 5G communication systems.
At 40 GHz, a 2 m wireless link was proposed in [18], with
single channel tranmsission of 2Gbps using quadrature phase
shift keying (QPSK) scheme. For 50 GHz, a 1.2 m FiWi
link was established for 1Gbps data trasnmission over multichannels, using filter bank multicarrier (FBMC) with Mary quadrature amplitude modulation (MQAM, M=16) [19].
Likewise, a 60GHz orthogonal frequency division multiplexed (OFDM)/QPSK signal is optically generated and
wirelessly transmitted over 0. 6m, carring 1.2Gbps single
channel transmission [20]. On the other hand, the W-band
(70-110GHz) has shown promising solution for broadband
wireless communication. For instance, the highest transmission rate of 128Gbps at 100GHz, wireless single channel was presented in [21] with spectral effeciency of 5.2
b/s/Hz, achieved using dual polrization (DP)/QPSK and
2 × 2 MIMO system. Additionally, the longest tranmission link of 1km outdoor has been reported in [22], for
10Gbps amplitude shift keying (ASK), tranmsitted over
6716
120GHz single wireless channel. Moreover, the low atmosphric absorption in the 200 –300GHz (J-band) attracted
an inreasing interest for short- and middel-range wireless
backhaul communication [23]. In this regard, 100Gbps transmission rate has been reported in [24] and [25] at 237.5 GHz
and 250GHz, respectively. The latter was based on multichannel transmission. Table I summerizes and compares
recent experiemntal demonstrations in terms of carrier frequency, number of channels, data rate (Rt ), spectral effeiciney (SE), baud rate (BR), wireless link length (LL),
fiber length (FL), and tranmsission envirenment and
technology.
Furthermore, hybrid devices that involve electronics and
photonics will potentially play a key role in the future high
speed communication networks. Photonics switches promise
a number of significant advantages over electronics switches.
This includes high data rate switching [28], fast switching
time [29], [30], compatibility to the input optical signals
(i.e. no need for O/E, E/O, and MUX/De-MUX circuits),
low latency, and transparency to data rates and modulation
schemes [31]. Nonetheless, electronic switches still show
important advantages represented in small footprint, low cost,
and powerful digital capabilities [32].
A set of photonic-based switching technologies that
imply optical single side band (OSSB) generation has been
recently proposed [33]–[41]. This includes sideband filtering that requires a narrowband optical filter to be carefully
tuned to the specific sideband [33], [34], OSSB generation
using dual electrode Mach-Zehnder interferometer modulator (MZM) [35], Sagnac structure [36], [37], and various
hybrid modulator structures [38], [39]. In [40], the OSSB
generation has been proposed using a compact integration
of silicon-on-insulator material and coupled resonator optical
waveguide. Among photonic-based switching technologies,
VOLUME 5, 2017
F. Saadaoui et al.: Optimizing OSSB Generation Using SOA for 5G MMW Switching
signal. In Section II, we introduce and discuss the principle
of MMW switch considered in this paper. In Section III, we
explain our systematic methodology that targets to determine
the optimum operating conditions pertaining to the switching
principle. In Section IV, we evaluate the MMW switch in an
end-to-end setup.
FIGURE 1. (a) Basic schematic of 1:N optical switch (b) General structure
of the 1:N photonic-based MMW switch; PD: photodiode; AWG: array
waveguide grating; WC: wavelength conversion; CW: continuous wave;
Fc: carrier frequency.
nonlinear mediums such as semiconductor optical amplifiers
(SOAs) and high nonlinear fiber (HNLF) can be considered to
develop a low cost switching techniques. Contrary to HNLF,
SOA reduces the high power requirement of injected laser
signal. The nonlinear phenomenon of FWM inside SOA provides transparency to modulation format and bit rate, in addition to high conversion efficiency [42], [43]. Very recently,
Zhu et al. [41] proposed a novel photonic RF switching
technique based on OSSB wavelength conversion for RoF
applications. Fig. 1 shows a general structure for 1 × N
all optical mm-wave switch. The input signal of the AWG
is the OSSB (switched signal) that is chosen to fall in a
standard ITU channel sub-band (or interval). Once the latter
is launched to the AWG, it will be delivered at the wanted
output and then directed to the designated antenna element
(or array sector, or base station) for radiation depending on
the application. If another output (or antenna) is needed for
radiation, the OSSB signal should fall in another respective
ITU channel sub-band accordingly. Obviously, the choice of
the appropriate pump wavelength versus the input probe (or
data) wavelength decides about ITU sub-band in which the
OSSB should fall.
In this paper, we present an experimental systematic
approach to identify the operating conditions for photonic
based mm-wave switching for the next generation (5G) wireless communication using four wave mixing (FWM), selfphase modulation (SPM), and cross gain modulation (XGM)
effects in SOA. The key parameters under consideration
include the injection current, wavelength spacing between the
probe and pump signals, in addition to their respective powers. We experimentally determine the optimal operating conditions that maximize the sideband suppression ratio (SSR)
and simultaneously reduce the useless sideband signal intensity, leading to a dispersion free transmission in optical fiber.
Further, we demonstrate for the first time, to the best of
our knowledge, a photonic-based MMW switch for 30GHz
MMW carrier modulated by a 3Gbaud-QPSK multilevel
VOLUME 5, 2017
FIGURE 2. Principle of all-optical switching using nonlinear FWM effect in
SOA.
II. PRINCIPLE OF PHOTONICS BASED MMW SWITCH
As illustrated in Fig. 2, the modulated data signal is combined
linearly with a second continuous wave (CW) and launched
to SOA, where the two waves will simultaneously experience
a set of three nonlinear phenomena.
The first is the FWM which is the mostly nonlinear process studied in literature [44]. Both optical waves, the probe
wave (i.e. data signal) with frequency wpro given by Epro =
Apro exp(j(wpro t − ϕpro )) and the CW with frequency wpum ,
expressed as Epum = Apum exp(j(wpum t − ϕpum )), will beat
together inside the SOA and modulate the carrier density
and the carrier distribution in the active media, generating a
dynamic index variation and gain gratings. The interaction
between both waves and these gratings results in the generation of two new waves wi = 2wpro − wpum and wsw =
2wpum − wpro . The output switched signal under investigation
is given by [42]
Esw = Apro A∗pum η cos θ exp(j(wsw t − ϕsw ))
(1)
where η is the conversion efficiency inversely proportional
to the frequency difference between the beaten light signals,
θ is the angle between probe and pump light signals, and
ϕsw = 2ϕpum − ϕpro where ϕpum and ϕpro are the phases of
pump and probe signals, respectively. The switched optical
power achieves maximum output when the polarization for
both beaten signals are parallel to each other. It is worthy to
note that the application suggested here considers a switch
where all devices are located inside the same instrument, and
the polarization control (PC) devices are used to align both
beaten signals. For applications that involve long distance
transmission of the data signal, the polarization can rotate
randomly and should need polarization monitoring at the
6717
F. Saadaoui et al.: Optimizing OSSB Generation Using SOA for 5G MMW Switching
reception in order to ensure the alignment. Note that if the
wavelength λpro or λpum is carefully selected, the wavelength
of the switched signal λsw can be generated corresponding to a desired channel of the wavelength division multiplexer (WDM). The optical single sideband signal at λsw
corresponds to specific output port number of the 1:N switch.
Thus, the photonic switching of the MMW signals can be
realized.
The nonlinear dynamics in SOA, responsible for the emission process of FWM, are based on intra-band and inter-band
effects. The inter-band effect is the change of the carrier density due to carrier depletion caused by stimulated emission,
which is referred to as carrier density pulsation (CDP) [45].
The intra-band effects are firstly associated to the mechanism of spectral hole burning (SHB) causing a deviation
from Fermi distribution and secondly to free carriers at low
energy levels, which are removed by stimulated emission or
transferred to higher levels due to free carrier absorption. This
phenomenon is known as carrier heating (CH) [45].
The second effect is the cross gain modulation (XGM) that
converts the data initially carried by the modulated probe
signal to the continuous wave pump signal. When high optical
power is injected into the active region of the SOA, the carrier
concentration is depleted through the stimulated emission.
This is known as gain saturation and it can be used to convert
data from one wavelength to another [46]. The modulated signal with highest power will modulate the gain of the SOA and
this modulation will be imposed on the lower power (CW)
pump signal.
The third effect is the phase modulation (PM) in SOA
which is governed by the variation of carrier density owing
to change of optical power [47], [48]. The modulated optical
double side band signal (ODSB) will experience a SPM effect
inside the OSA. Hence, no need for filtering at the output
of the SOA to select one of the sidebands and drop the
other. The SOA’s output becomes an optical single side band
(OSSB) signal. One of the key contributions of this paper is to
identify the optimum or suboptimum operating conditions in
order ensure intrinsic elimination of one of the sidebands and
transfer most of the available power to the other sideband. The
output optical single side band (OSSB) field can be expressed
as [48]
i
h
m
Epro (t) = Apro + sin(wm t)
n h2
io
mα
× exp i wpro t +
sin(wm t + β)
(2)
2
where wm is the MMW source frequency, m is the modulation index, α is the chirp parameter, and β is the phase
difference between the amplitude modulation part and phase
modulation part in (2). At high frequency, β is close to
π/2 [47], additionally, the chirp parameter is a power dependent factor and we have to make it close to unity such that
both modulation indexes (i.e. AM and PM) become the same
to realize the generation of OSSB modulated signal. This can
be controlled by the input power of the SOA [47].
6718
FIGURE 3. (a) Experimental setup for the proposed photonics based
MMW switch. OC: optical coupler; VOA: variable optical attenuator; MZM:
Mach Zehnder modulator; PC: polarization controller; OSA optical
spectrum analyzer; SOA: semiconductor optical amplifier; VSG: vector
signal generator; AWG: arbitrary waveform generator; (b) Measured
optical spectrum at the output of Kamilian SOA.
III. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The experimental set-up used to generate OSSB signal by
phase modulation in SOA is shown in Fig. 3 (a). The probe
light beam is generated by a DFB fiber laser source and modulated, using Fujitsu FTM7977HQA Mach-Zehnder modulator (MZM), by a 3 Gbaud QPSK electrical signal generated
using 215 − 1 pseudorandom binary sequence (PRBS). The
QPSK signal is carried over a 30 GHz MMW carrier generated by Keysight vector signal generator E8267D. The continuous pump wavelength is provided by tunable laser source
with wavelength stability of 2.5 pm. The two beams are
combined using a 50:50 optical coupler (OC) and launched
into Kamilian NL-L1-C-FA SOA having a gain recovery time
of 25 ps and polarization dependence of 1 dB. The power
measurements of the output spectra have been accomplished
using Keysight optical spectrum analyzer (OSA-86140B)
with 0.06nm resolution bandwidth.
In Fig. 3 (b), we present the optical spectrum obtained
at the output of the SOA for 250mA injection current. The
powers of the probe and pump beams are maintained constants at 2.51 and 2.41 dBm, respectively. The wavelengths
are set to 1550.116 and 1549.315 nm. It is clearly seen in
this figure that the FWM effect is observed and four main
peaks are obtained corresponding to the original probe and
pump beams, in addition to the generated idler and switched
beams. The modulated signal is successively switched to
VOLUME 5, 2017
F. Saadaoui et al.: Optimizing OSSB Generation Using SOA for 5G MMW Switching
FIGURE 4. Power variation of the right (square) versus the left (circle)
switched signals as a function of the SOA injection current.
FIGURE 5. Power variation of the right (square) versus the left (circle)
switched signals as a function of the probe power.
1548.514 nm, where every main peak has two small lateral
peaks corresponding to the detailed spectrum. The intensity
of the small peaks depends on the injection current. The
cross gain modulation XGM and self-phase modulation SPM
phenomena are realized in this experience. For certain current
values, the converted wavelength signal is less or more an
OSSB signal.
The sideband suppression ratio (SSR), defined as the
power ratio between the two first order side bands, is used
to evaluate the performance of OSSB signals [41]. In Fig. 4
we show the measured change and the difference between the
switched sidebands (i.e. left and right) with respect to SOA
injection current varied from 10 to 250 mA. It is noted that
the OSSB is more effective for injection current higher than
Iinj = 60 mA. At this bias current, the population inversion
starts to be realized and the population density in the excited
states has exceeded that of the ground states in the active
region of the SOA. For the following measurements, we set
the SOA injection current to 200 mA corresponding to a
maximum of 14 dB SSR (i.e. lowest magnitude of the left
sideband signal). A lower intensity of the left sideband should
lead to a better dispersion free transmission in optical fiber.
In fact, dispersion in optical fiber highly increases for any
signal bandwidth increase. Hence, the benefit of SSB from
the fact that its bandwidth is much lower than that of the DSB
signal.
In the subsequent steps of our investigation, we target to
examine the effect of the probe power on the SSR, where the
intensity of the switched left sideband needs to be minimized.
Fig. 5 shows the magnitude of both sidebands (right and left)
as a function of the probe power and the difference between
them. The pump beam power is set constant at 2.41 dBm
and the wavelengths for both beams are fixed at 1550.116
and 1549.315 nm, respectively. We observe the behavior of
both side bands in various regimes of probe power starting
by low values (Region A in Fig. 5). When we increase the
probe power, the depletion of the carrier concentration in the
SOA active region, through stimulated emission, is improved.
Then, this leads to higher carrier density modulation and
consequently enhances the intensity of the right side band
(Region B in Fig. 5). The decrease of the left side band
is an intrinsic filtering that occurs in the SOA and can be
mathematically modeled by the Hilbert transform process.
When the input power highly increases the SOA starts to
reach a level of saturation, the converted signal decreases
again (Region C in Fig. 5). Experimental results show that the
maximum SSR is 14dB and the minimum intensity of the left
sideband peak is obtained at a probe beam power of 2.7 dBm.
Further investigation was carried out on the performance
of the probe power on the magnitudes of the switched sidebands. The injection current is fixed at 200 mA whereas the
probe beam power is set to 2.7 dBm, from previous results.
In Fig. 6, we show the measured change and difference
between magnitudes of switched beam sidebands as function
of probe beam power variation. It is clear from this measurement that the optimal power probe beam is obtained at
2.5 dBm which corresponds to maximum SSR ratio of 14 dB.
Here, we loop back our optimization procedure and investigate again the power of the switched signals (right and left)
but for the newly identified probe and pump powers that
are, respectively, 2.7 and 2.5 dBm. It appears that the most
interesting bias current is 220 mA, see Fig. 7. The SSR did not
change, but the magnitude of the left side band is minimized.
Based on the obtained power levels, for both probe and pump
signals, and the detuning wavelength, the best obtained conversion efficiency [43] is -16dB. Additionally, the measured
optical signal to noise ratio of the switched signal is 26dB.
The last experiment of this investigation consists of determining the optimal wavelength spacing between the probe
and the pump beams. We analyze the performance of the
OSSB generation of the switched signal for different values
of the probe (data) and pump (CW) wavelengths for fixed
VOLUME 5, 2017
6719
F. Saadaoui et al.: Optimizing OSSB Generation Using SOA for 5G MMW Switching
FIGURE 6. Power variation of the right (square) versus the left (circle)
switched signals as a function of the pump power.
FIGURE 8. Power variation of the switched sidebands depending on the
probe wavelength.
TABLE 2. Calculation Of the output signals (switched) for some input
signals (CW and data).
FIGURE 7. Power variation of the right (square) versus the left (circle)
switched signals as a function of the injection current for a probe power
= 2.7 dBm and pump power = 2.5 dBm.
powers of pump and probe, 2.5 and 2.7 dBm, respectively,
and for the same injection current Iinj = 220 mA, based on
previous investigations. We first choose four random values
of the probe wavelength. Then, for each value, we vary the
pump beam wavelength by steps of 0.4 nm (50 GHz) in order
to observe the effect of the wavelength spacing 1λ, between
both wavelengths (i.e. probe and pump), on the OSSB at the
switched signal. We present in Fig. 8 the power variation of
the right (dotted) versus the left (continuous) switched signals
as a function of the pump wavelength for a probe wavelength
λpro = 1550.116 nm. The best obtained SSR value is 14dB
at probe wavelength λprobe = 1548.515 nm corresponding to
wavelength spacing 1λ = 1.60 nm.
We present in Table II (first three rows) the experimental
values of λpum and λpro given the maximum of 14 dB SSR
at the switched signal which is, according to the ITU-T
grid standard, in consistency with the WDM channels for
6720
50GHz grid. In order to confirm these results, we choose
two other values of λpum and λpro (last two rows) and we
determine wsc that is also in consistency with the WDM ITUT grid. This table shows that standard and widely available
WDM multiplexers/de-multiplexers based on array waveguide gratings can be easily used to enable our MMW switch
at affordable cost. It should be also noted that the spacing
between the probe and pump wavelength that provides the
best SSR is not really constant, leading to a suboptimum
operation.
IV. DATA SWITCHING PERFORMANCE
Based on the characterization of the best operation point
in terms of injection current, probe power, pump power,
and wavelength spacing, we measured the end-to-end performance of the whole switch. A proof of concept is presented in Fig. 9. An optical tunable filter (Santec OTF-350)
is used in order to suppress the switched carrier (i.e. not the
band) and pass only the remaining switched sideband that
is carrying the MMW signal. This filtering is used only for
performance evaluation and improvement since it simultaneously eliminates the unwanted carrier and minimizes the
background noise. An erbium doped fiber amplifier (EDFA)
is used in order to amplify the signal at the output of the
OTF. The amplified signal is coherently demodulated using
VOLUME 5, 2017
F. Saadaoui et al.: Optimizing OSSB Generation Using SOA for 5G MMW Switching
affects the conversion efficiency. In addition, the MMW is
modulated using QPSK scheme instead of the probe wavelength itself.
V. CONCLUSION
FIGURE 9. Experimental setup for the end-to-end performance
measurement of the switch.
We have reported the needs to define the optimum operating
point of the SOA by the systematic experimental investigation of the OSSB based SOA. The SOA’s injection current,
input lasers’ powers and wavelengths detuning are parametrically analyzed. Moreover, a photonic-based MMW switch
is demonstrated for 30GHz MMW carrier modulated by a
3Gbaud-QPSK multilevel signal which is more appropriate
for application in 5G communication system. A 14dB SSR is
achieved for optimum OSSB data switching with a conversion efficiency of -16 dB. Basically, for low received power,
we successfully switch the 30GHz MMW with BER less than
forward error correction (FEC) limit. A 6Gbps QPSK signal
carried over 30GHz is successfully switched over a detuning
wavelength of 1.6 nm.
REFERENCES
FIGURE 10. BER measurement and comparison between three cases of
right sideband wavelengths: the switched, after SOA, and back to back.
the Keysight N4391A optical modulation analyzer (OMA).
The performance of the switched signal is evaluated
through end-to-end bit error rate (BER) measurement. We
achieved BER measurements for three scenarios for the purpose of comparison. The first scenario corresponds to the
wished switched wavelength (the right switched sideband).
The second corresponds to the right sideband of the probe
wavelength at the output of the SOA (referred to as ASOA).
The third is to the back to back (B2B) signal which is the right
sideband signal of the probe before beating with probe signal
inside the SOA.
In Fig.10, we present the comparison curve of the BER
versus the received power at the OMA for 3Gbaud-QPSK
data. It is clear that the switching penalty power is around
7 dB for 1E-3 BER. The constellation insets shown in Fig. 10
are for B-to-B and right switched signals, respectively. The
measured error vector magnitude (EVM) values for the right
switched signal are as follows; 22.8% root mean square (rms)
with bit error rate (BER) of 1.5E-6 and 29 % rms with 3.2E4 BER. It’s worthy to note that employing QPSK modulation, for switching in SOA, is less sensitive to pattern effect
than traditional on-off-keying (OOK) modulated signals.
Since there is no power variation in QPSK symbols, which
VOLUME 5, 2017
[1] T. S. Rappaport et al., ‘‘Millimeter wave mobile communications for 5G
cellular: It will work!’’ IEEE Access, vol. 1, pp. 335–349, May 2013.
[2] J. Qiao, X. Shen, J. Mark, Q. Shen, Y. He, and L. Lei, ‘‘Enabling device-todevice communications in millimeter-wave 5G cellular networks,’’ IEEE
Commun. Mag., vol. 53, no. 1, pp. 209–215, Jan. 2015.
[3] C. Zhang, ‘‘Proposal for 60 GHz wireless transceiver for the radio over
fiber system,’’ Opt. Laser Technol., vol. 56, no. 2, pp. 146–150, 2014.
[4] C. Zhang, L. Wang, and K. Qiu, ‘‘Proposal for all-optical generation of
multiple-frequency millimeter-wave signals for RoF system with multiple base stations using FWM in SOA,’’ Opt. Exp., vol. 19, no. 15,
pp. 13957–13962, 2011.
[5] P. Ghelfi, F. Laghezza, F. Scotti, D. Onori, and A. Bogoni, ‘‘Photonics for
radars operating on multiple coherent bands,’’ J. Lightw. Technol., vol. 34,
no. 2, pp. 500–507, Jan. 15, 2016.
[6] F. Scotti, D. Onori, and F. Laghezza, ‘‘Fully Coherent S- and X-band
photonics-aided radar system demonstration,’’ IEEE Microw. Wireless
Compon. Lett., vol. 25, no. 11, pp. 757–759, Nov. 2015.
[7] F. Scotti, F. Laghezza, P. Ghelfi, and A. Bogoni, ‘‘Multi-band softwaredefined coherent radar based on a single photonic transceiver,’’ IEEE
Trans. Microw. Theory Techn., vol. 63, no. 2, pp. 546–552, Feb. 2015.
[8] S. E. Alavi, M. R. K. Soltanian, I. S. Amiri, A. S. M. Supa’at, and
H. Ahmad, ‘‘Towards 5G: A photonic based millimeter wave signal generation for applying in 5G access fronthaul,’’ Sci. Rep., vol. 6, Jan. 2016,
Art.no. 19891.
[9] M. Xu, J. Zhang, F. Lu, Y. Wang, D. Guidotti, and G. Chang, ‘‘Investigation of FBMC in mobile fronthaul networks for 5G wireless with timefrequency modulation adaptation,’’ in Opt. Fiber Commun. Conf. OSA
Tech. Dig. Online Opt. Soc. Amer., 2016, pp. 1–3.
[10] T. Kanesan et al., ‘‘Dual pump brillouin laser for RoF millimeterwave
carrier generation with tunable resolution,’’ in Proc. IEEE Region Conf.
TENCON, Macao, Chaina, Nov. 2015, pp. 1–6.
[11] J. Zhang, ‘‘Full-duplex asynchronous quasi-gapless carrier-aggregation
using filter-bank multi-carrier in MMW radio-over-fiber heterogeneous
mobile access networks,’’ in Opt. Fiber Commun. Conf. OSA Tech. Dig.
Online Opt. Soc. Amer., 2016, pp. 1–3.
[12] G. Scalari et al., ‘‘THz and sub-THz quantum cascade lasers,’’ Laser
Photon. Rev., vol. 3, pp. 45–66, Sep. 2009.
[13] G.-R. Lin, J.-R. Wu, and Y.-C. Chang, ‘‘Photonic millimeter-wave generation from frequency-multiplied Erbium-doped fiber pulse-train using
purely sinusoidal-wave modulated laser diode,’’ Opt. Exp., vol. 12, no. 17,
pp. 4166–4171, 2004.
[14] M. Bakaul, A. Nirmalathas, C. Lim, D. Novak, and
R. B. Waterhouse, ‘‘Simultaneous multiplexing and demultiplexing
of wavelength-interleaved channels in DWDM millimeter-wave fiberradio networks,’’ J. Lightw. Technol., vol. 24, no. 9, pp. 3341–3352,
Sep. 2006.
6721
F. Saadaoui et al.: Optimizing OSSB Generation Using SOA for 5G MMW Switching
[15] Q. Wang, H. Rideout, F. Zeng, and J. Yao, ‘‘Millimeter-wave frequency
tripling based on four-wave mixing in a semiconductor optical amplifier,’’
IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett., vol. 18, no. 23, pp. 2460–2462, Dec. 1, 2006.
[16] J. Ge and M. P. Fok, ‘‘Ultra high-speed radio frequency switch based on
photonics,’’ Sci. Rep. vol. 5, p. 17263, Nov. 2015.
[17] C. Zhang, C. Chen, and K. Qiu, ‘‘Hybrid bidirectional radio-over-fiberbased orthogonal frequency division multiple access-passive optical network supporting 60/120 GHz using offset quadrate phase shift keying,’’
Opt. Eng., vol. 54, no. 9, p. 096108, 2015.
[18] X. Li, J. Yu, and G. K. Chang, ‘‘Frequency-quadrupling vector mm-wave
signal generation by only one single-drive MZM,’’ IEEE Photon. Technol.
Lett., vol. 28, no. 12, pp. 1302–1305, Jun. 15, 2016.
[19] M. Xu et al., ‘‘FBMC in next-generation mobile fronthaul networks with
centralized pre-equalization,’’ IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett., vol. 28, no. 18,
pp. 1912–1915, Sep. 15, 2016.
[20] B. Wu et al., ‘‘Polarization-insensitive remote access unit for radio-overfiber mobile fronthaul system by reusing polarization orthogonal light
waves,’’ IEEE Photon. J., vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 1–8, Feb. 2016.
[21] X. Li, J. Yu, J. Xiao, and Y. Xu, ‘‘Fiber-wireless-fiber link for 128-Gb/s
PDM-16 QAM signal transmission at W -band,’’ IEEE Photon. Technol.
Lett., vol. 26, no. 19, pp. 1948–1951, Oct. 1, 2014.
[22] A. Hirata et al., ‘‘120-GHz-band wireless link technologies for outdoor
10-Gbit/s data transmission,’’ IEEE Trans. Microw. Theory Techn., vol. 60,
no. 3, pp. 881–895, Mar. 2012.
[23] A. Kanno et al., ‘‘All-spectrum fiber-wireless transmission for 5G backhaul
and fronthaul links,’’ in Proc. Opt. Fiber Commun. Conf. Exhibit. (OFC),
Anaheim, CA, USA, 2016, pp. 1–3.
[24] S. Koenig et al., ‘‘Wireless sub-THz communication system with high data
rate,’’ Nature Photon., vol. 7, no. 12, pp. 977–981, Dec. 2013.
[25] H. Shams, M. J. Fice, L. Gonzalez-Guerrero, C. C. Renaud, F. van Dijk,
and A. J. Seeds, ‘‘Sub-THz wireless over fiber for frequency band 220-280
GHz,’’ J. Lightw. Technol., vol. 34, no. 20, pp. 4786–4793, Oct. 15, 2016.
[26] X. Li, Y. Xu, J. Xiao, and J. Yu, ‘‘W-band millimeter-wave vector signal generation based on precoding-assisted random photonic frequency
tripling scheme enabled by phase modulator,’’ IEEE Photon. J., vol. 8,
no. 2, pp. 1–10, Apr. 2016.
[27] H. Shams, M. J. Fice, K. Balakier, C. C. Renaud, F. van Dijk, and
A. J. Seeds, ‘‘Photonic generation for multichannel THz wireless communication,’’ Opt. Exp., vol. 22, no. 19, pp. 23465–23472, 2014.
[28] A. P. Anthur, R. Zhou, E. Martin, S. O. Duill, and L. P. Barry, ‘‘Wavelength conversion of Nyquist pol-mux QPSK superchannel using fourwave mixing in SOA,’’ in Proc. Opt. Fiber Commun. Conf. Exhibit. (OFC),
Anaheim, CA, USA, 2016, pp. 1–3.
[29] M. C. Wu, S. Han, T. J. Seok, and N. Quack, ‘‘Large-port-count
MEMS silicon photonics switches,’’ in Proc. Opt. Fiber Commun. Conf.
Exhibit. (OFC), Los Angeles, CA, USA, 2015, pp. 1–3.
[30] C. M. Gallep and E. Conforti, ‘‘Reduction of semiconductor optical amplifier switching times by preimpulse step-injected current technique,’’ IEEE
Photon. Technol. Lett., vol. 14, no. 7, pp. 902–904, Jul. 2002.
[31] X. Ye, V. Akella, and S. J. B. Yoo, ‘‘Comparative studies of all-optical vs.
Electrical vs. Hybrid switches in datacom and in telecom networks,’’ in
Proc. Opt. Fiber Commun. Conf. Expo. Nat. Fiber Opt. Eng. Conf., Los
Angeles, CA, USA, 2011, pp. 1–3.
[32] R. S. Tucker, ‘‘The role of optics and electronics in high-capacity routers,’’
J. Lightw. Technol., vol. 24, no. 12, pp. 4655–4673, Dec. 2006.
[33] J. Park, W. V. Sorin, and K. Y. Lau, ‘‘Elimination of the fibre chromatic
dispersion penalty on 1550 nm millimetre-wave optical transmission,’’
Electron. Lett., vol. 33, no. 6, pp. 512–513, Mar. 1997.
[34] P. H. Hsie, W. S. Tsai, C. C. Weng, and H. H. Lu, ‘‘Optical single sideband
modulation of 9 GHz RoF system based on FWM effects of SOA,’’ in Proc.
PIERS, Suzhou, China, Sep. 2011, p. 518.
[35] M. Xue, S. Pan, and Y. Zhao, ‘‘Optical single-sideband modulation based
on a dual-drive MZM and a 120◦ hybrid coupler,’’ J. Lightw. Technol.,
vol. 32, no. 19, pp. 3317–3323, Oct. 1, 2014.
[36] A. Loayassa, D. Benito, and M. J. Garde, ‘‘Single-sideband suppressedcarrier modulation using a single-electrode electro-optic modulator,’’ IEEE
Photon. Technol. Lett., vol. 13, no. 8, pp. 869–971, Aug. 2001.
[37] B. Wu et al., ‘‘Optical single sideband modulation with tunable optical
carrier-to-sideband ratio using a modulator in a Sagnac loop,’’ Opt. Laser
Technol., vol. 91, no. 1, pp. 98–102, Jun. 2017.
[38] Y. Zhang, F. Zhang, and S. Pan, ‘‘Optical single sideband modulation with
tunable optical carrier-to-sideband ratio,’’ IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett.,
vol. 26, no. 7, pp. 653–655, Apr. 1, 2014.
6722
[39] B. Davies and J. Conrad, ‘‘Hybrid modulator structures for subcarrier and
harmonic subcarrier optical single sideband,’’ IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett.,
vol. 10, no. 4, pp. 600–602, Apr. 1998.
[40] S. Song, X. Yi, S. X. Chew, L. Li, L. Nguyen, and R. Zheng, ‘‘Optical single-sideband modulation based on silicon-on-insulator coupledresonator optical waveguides,’’ Opt. Eng., vol. 55, p. 031114, Sep. 2015.
[41] D. Zhu, H. Wu, and S. Pan, ‘‘Photonic switching of RF signals based on
optical single sideband wavelength conversion in a semiconductor optical
amplifier,’’ in Proc. 13th Int. Conf. Opt. Commun. Netw. (ICOCN), Suzhou,
China, 2014, pp. 1–3.
[42] A. Anthur, R. Zhou, E. Martin, S. O. Duill, and L. Barry, ‘‘Wavelength
conversion of nyquist pol-mux QPSK superchannel using four-wave mixing in SOA,’’ in Proc. Opt. Fiber Commun. Conf. OSA Tech. Dig. Online
Opt. Soc. Amer., 2016, pp. 1–3.
[43] G. Contestabile, L. Banchi, M. Presi, and E. Ciaramella, ‘‘Investigation
of transparency of FWM in SOA to advanced modulation formats involving intensity, phase, and polarization multiplexing,’’ J. Lightw. Technol.,
vol. 27, no. 19, pp. 4256–4261, Oct. 1, 2009.
[44] H. Zhou, J. Yu, J. Tang, and L. Chen, ‘‘Polarization-insensitive wavelength
conversion for polarization multiplexing non-return-to-zero quadrature
phase shift keying signals based on four-wave mixing in a semiconductor
optical amplifier using digital coherent detection,’’ Opt. Eng. vol. 52, no. 2,
p. 025001, Feb. 01, 2013.
[45] X. H. Jia, Z. M. Wu, and G. Q. Xia, ‘‘Detailed theoretical investigation
on enhanced nondegenerate four-wave mixing in passive mode-locked
semiconductor lasers,’’ IEEE J. Quantum Electron., vol. 43, no. 11,
pp. 1065–1073, Nov. 2007.
[46] D. Nesset, T. Kelly, and D. Marcenac, ‘‘All-optical wavelength conversion using SOA nonlinearities,’’ IEEE Commun. Mag., vol. 36, no. 12,
pp. 56–61, Dec. 1998.
[47] U.-S. Lee, H.-D. Jung, and S.-K. Han, ‘‘Optical single sideband signal
generation using phase modulation of semiconductor optical amplifier,’’
IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett., vol. 16, no. 5, pp. 1373–1375, May 2004.
[48] H. Jiang et al., ‘‘Improved optical single-sideband signal generation using
the self-modulation birefringence difference in semiconductor optical
amplifier,’’ Opt. Lett., vol. 32, no. 17, pp. 2580–2582, Sep. 2007.
FADHEL SAADAOUI received the License in fundamental physics in 2012 and the master’s degree
in physics of materials from the High School of
Sciences and Technologies Tunis, University of
Tunis, Tunisia, in 2014, where he is currently pursuing the Ph.D. degree with the Physics and Chemistry Department, National High School of Engineers Tunis. His current research interests include
semiconductor optical amplifier and semiconductor ring lasers.
MOHAMED FATHALLAH was born in Ras
Jebel, Tunisia, in 1947. He received the Dipl.Eng.
degree from the School of Radioelectricity of
Paris, France, in 1971, the M.S. degree from
the University of Tunis in 1977, and the Ph.D.
degree in physics from the Department of Physics,
Faculty of Sciences of Tunis, in 1980. He joined
the Tunisian Television and spent six years.
He joined the University of Tunis El Manar as an
Assistant Professor in 1980 and the University of
Tunis as an Associate Professor in 1989. He became a Professor in 1994.
He spent five years in King Saud University since 2005. He is currently
a Professor Emeritus with the University of Tunis. He has authored or
co-authored over 70 papers and two books. His research interest has been
in physics of semiconductors and optoelectric devices.
VOLUME 5, 2017
F. Saadaoui et al.: Optimizing OSSB Generation Using SOA for 5G MMW Switching
AMR M. RAGHEB received the B.S. (Hons.)
and M.Sc. degrees from Tanta University, Egypt,
in 2001 and 2007, respectively, and the Ph.D.
degree from King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi
Arabia, in 2015, all in electrical engineering. He
was a Teaching Assistant (TA) with Tanta University from 2003 to 2008. He was a TA with
King Saud University from 2010 to 2015. He has
over five years of experience with the Photonics
Telecommunication Laboratory. He is currently
a Post-Doctoral Fellow with the King Abd-Alaziz City for Science and
Technology–Technology Innovation Center in RF and Photonics, Riyadh.
He has contributed in the research areas, such as photonic-microwave
integration, quantum dash-based lasers, free space optical communication,
coherent optical receivers, multi-format high speed optical transmitter, and
passive optical networks.
MUHAMMAD IRFAN MEMON was born in
Khairpur, Pakistan. He received the B.Eng. degree
(Hons.) in information technology from Hamdard
University, Karachi, Pakistan, in 2003, and the
Ph.D. degree in engineering from the University
of Bristol, Bristol, U.K., in 2011. He has held
lecturing position at the COMSATS Institute of IT,
Islamabad, Pakistan. He has also a Post-Doctoral
Researcher with the Prince Sultan Advanced Technologies Research Institute, King Saud University,
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, for over three years. He is currently an Associate
Professor with the University of Lahore, Lahore, Pakistan. His research
interests cover radio over fiber systems, optical networks, all-optical memory
systems, with over 40 technical publications. He is a Chartered Engineer in
U.K. and a member of the Institution of Engineering and Technology, U.K.
VOLUME 5, 2017
HABIB FATHALLAH (S’96–M’01–SM’15) born
in Ras Jebel, Tunisia, in 1969. He received the
B.S.E.E. degree (Hons.) from the National Engineering School of Tunis in 1994, and the M.S. and
Ph.D. degrees in electrical and computer engineering from Laval University, Canada, in 1997 and
2001, respectively. In 2008, he joined the Electrical Engineering Department, College of Engineering, King Saud University (KSU), Saudi Arabia.
In 2011, he co-founded the KACST Technology
Innovation Center on Radio Frequency, Wireless and Photonics, KSU. He
was an Adjunct professor with the Department of Electrical and Computer
Engineering, from 2003 to 2012, and a Senior Scientist with the Center
of Optics Photonics and Laser, Canada, from 2006 to 2008. From 1999 to
2005, he has industrial experience mainly at Access Photonic Networks Inc.,
Canada, as the Founder, the President, and the Chief Technology Officer.
He fathered the use of Bragg gratings technology for all-optical/all-fiber
coding/decoding in optical CDMA systems the application of all optical
coding for FTTX monitoring. He initiated and managed over 20 research,
innovation and development, and academic and industry projects in Canada
and MENA. He has authored two books and close to 100 publications, and
holds 12 patents. His research contributions have been cited over 1100 times.
His former and current research interests include waveband light sources,
optical code division multiple access OCDMA, optical coding/decoding,
fiber-to-the-X passive optical networks technologies and monitoring, erbium
doped fiber amplifiers, fiber Bragg grating manufacturing and applications
for communications and sensing, few mode fibers-space division multiplexing, electromagnetic wave energy harvesting, optical antennas, ultra high
speed communications 400G & Terabit per carrier, optical OFDM, and superchannel systems.
SALEH A. ALSHEBEILI was the Chairman of
the Electrical Engineering Department, King Saud
University, from 2001 to 2005. He has over 25
years of teaching and research experience in the
area of communications and signal processing. He
was a member of the Board of Directors with the
King Abdullah Institute for Research and Consulting Studies, from 2007 to 2009, a member
of the Board of Directors with the Prince Sultan
Advanced Technologies Research Institute, from
2008 to 2017, where he was the Managing Director from 2008 to 2011, and
the Director of the Saudi-Telecom Research Chair from 2008 to 2012. He has
been the Director of the Technology Innovation Center, RF and Photonics
in the e-Society, funded by the King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST), since 2011. He is currently a Professor with the Electrical
Engineering Department, King Saud University. He has been on the Editorial
Board of the Journal of Engineering Sciences of King Saud University from
2009 to 2012. He has also an active involvement in the review process of a
number of research journals, KACST general directorate grants programs,
and national and international symposiums and conferences.
6723