Multiplexing Multi-Gbps Analog Radio-Over-Fiber Links Over a Converged Fiber/FSO Intra-Campus Infrastructure

This paper is focused on the experimental demonstration of Analog Over Fiber systems over converged Fiber/Free Space Optical links enabling the X-haul connectivity in beyond 5G and 6G era. More specifically, we present an experimental campaign of Radio over Fiber transmission of diverse waveforms over hybrid Fiber/ Free Space Optical links scenarios. Initially, we present a brief link budget analysis for the Free Space Optical link. The performance of the end-to-end system is assessed in terms of real time error vector magnitude measurements. In parallel, by emulating a wavelength division multiplexing passive optical network topology, the RoF streams are also multiplexed with mobile traffic of an installed X-haul topology, produced by Small Form-factor Pluggable transceivers, and their performance over the converged fiber/FSO architecture is experimentally demonstrated.