Fiber-wireless networks incorporating wavelength division multiplexing

Broadband wireless access operating in the microwave and millimeter-wave frequency windows has been actively investigated for future ultra broadband communications. The drastic increase in the throughout of each base station in these systems necessitates the use of an optical fiber backbone to provide broadband interconnections between the central office and all the antenna base stations. With such a network layout, significant reduction of the antenna base station complexity can be achieved by moving the routing, switching and processing functionalities to the central office. By taking advantage of optical networking techniques such as wavelength division multiplexing (WDM), the total capacity of the hybrid fiber-wireless network can be greatly enhanced and efficient optical fiber architectures can be realized. In this paper we present an overview of the research that has been carried out in fiber-wireless networks incorporating WDM, with a particular focus on the optical interfaces in such networks.