Seamless Fiber-Wireless Access Network Convergence with Dynamic O-E-O Conversion-less Sub-Wavelength Switching and Tunable Photonic mmWave Generation

In order to meet the diverse needs of different services and applications in the B5G era, seamless integration of fiber and wireless network segments of next-generation radio access networks (NG-RANs), with flexible/fine channel switching granularity and ultra-low latency, is vital for enabling dynamic and continuous flow of heterogenous signals of various characteristics across different network segments without optical-electrical-optical (O-E-O) conversions or digital signal processing (DSP) at intermediate nodes. To address these requirements cost-effectively, we experimentally demonstrate 3×1.333 Gbps flexible BBU-UE connections over 10 km standard single-mode fiber (SSMF) and adaptable millimeter-wave (mmWave) wireless reach up to 50 m, using free-running laser/envelope detection-based tunable mmWave generation/detection, and soft-ROADM-enabled dynamic sub-wavelength-level channel switching. The proposed technique requires no O-E-O conversions or DSP at intermediate nodes and offers dynamic RRH-controllable mmWave transmission with large frequency tunability and adaptive wireless network coverage.