RoFLab Research Program

Next Generation Hybrid Optical-Wireless Communications Laboratory

                        

 

General Project Description

 

The aim is to build the first national test-bed for hybrid radio-over-fiber networks employing wireless and optical wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) technology. We plan to construct the test-bed using state-of-the-art photonic and millimeter-wave (mm-wave) components and test equipment. This represents a substantial upgrade of existing laboratory infrastructure, to enable the University of Cyprus to participate effectively in this strategically important field of research. Current access technologies represent a significant bottleneck in bandwidth and quality of service (QoS) between a high-speed residential/enterprise network and the core backbone network. The cost of deploying true broadband access networks with existing technologies remains prohibitive, making it difficult to support end-to-end QoS for applications that cannot tolerate variable or excessive delay or data loss such as voice, video, and multimedia. Passive optical networks (PON) are viewed as an attractive solution to the last mile problem. PONs can provide reliable yet integrated data, voice, and video services to end-users at bandwidths far exceeding current technologies. By using passive components and eliminating regenerators and active equipment normally used in fiber networks, PONs reduce installation and maintenance costs. In this work we will experiment with WDM-based PONs and will define and validate efficient and cost-effective architectures that can support various Quality of Service (QoS) applications. The application of radio-over-fiber (RoF) for broadband radio access systems has also attracted much attention lately because it can meet the broadband access services for mobile communications, wireless LANs, and fixed wireless access services. Of particular interest is the band around 60 GHz which, by virtue of high absorption, allows the formation of picocells with radii of the order of 100 m. These allow greater frequency reuse in addition to bandwidths of several GHz.

The main activity will be to investigate, prototype and evaluate novel WDM-PON and RoF technologies. We will create a WDM-PON network that supports the two main topology types (ring and tree), and in parallel also develop RoF picocells that support the three main transport schemes (baseband, IF-over-fiber and RF-over-fiber). We will then integrate the picocells with both the WDM-PON tree and ring, and test the network with realistic data signals (such as uncompressed high-definition TV). This will then be followed by extensive evaluation in terms of network survivability and QoS. Throughout the project we aim to develop a network that is easily scalable and offers seamless transition between wireless and wired services. The proposed infrastructure will enable us to integrate current research projects on the proposed test-beds, and will provide us with the tools necessary to apply for new research grants on optical networks at both the national and European levels (e.g., to create an ultra-broadband medical network for the real-time exchange of images and video between different clinics). New research on optical access networks will accelerate the deployment of next generation broadband access networks; it will solve the last-mile technology bottleneck and will be able to support new and unforeseen applications.

 

 

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