Optical switching for dynamic distribution of wireless-over-fiber signals in active optical networks

In this paper, we report on an experimental validation of dynamic distribution of wireless-over-fiber by employing optical switching using semiconductor optical amplifiers; we also provide a channel distribution scheme and a generic topology for such an optical switch. The experiment consists of a four wavelength-division-multiplexed channel system operating on a WiMax frequency band and employing an orthogonal-frequency-division-multiplexing modulation at 625 Mbits/s per channel, transmission of the data over 20 km of optical fiber, and active switching in a 1 × 16 active optical switch. The results show a negligible power penalty on each channel for both the best and the worst case in terms of inter-channel crosstalk. The presented system is highly scalable both in terms of port count and throughput, a desirable feature in highly branched access networks, and is modulation- and frequency-band independent.