Enhancing transmission reach: performance analysis of WDM RoF PON OFDM system design with varied QAM schemes

Abstract Radio over fiber is upcoming and maturing technology in terms of security, reliability, and coverage for long-distance optical-wireless communication systems. The nonlinear behavior and dispersive nature of optical channels are performance restrictive factors limiting the long reach in such systems. Along with enhancing channel capacity and bandwidth for radio signals over a long distance, the use of OFDM-based such systems can overcome various performance degrading effects like phase modulation, electrical power attenuation, chromatic dispersion, and multipath fading. Here, we propose our design of an 8 channels WDM RoF PON system using the OFDM scheme. Performance analysis is carried out in terms of performance comparison for various modulation schemes like 8, 16, 128, 256, and 512 QAM levels applied on information for long transmission reach of a system up to 500Kms. 8 channels WDM system model is developed to analyze the performance at a higher data rate. System performance is evaluated with Q factor and EVM level parameters of recovered signals at various transmission distances.