Photonics Breakthroughs 2024: Advances in B5G Radio-Power Over Fiber Fronthaul

Specific demands of providing power to equipment in remote areas or hazardous environments, including populated areas, requiring high throughputs and ultra-low latency in beyond 5 G (B5G) mobile communications that are based on Radio over Fiber (RoF) have made Power over Fiber (PoF) attractive. This paper reviews a breakthrough of a long-distance hollow core fiber (HCF) fronthaul (up to 11.1 km) able to meet the requirements of B5G optical mobile networks, where the transmission medium is common to both 5 G NR and PoF signals. This work is placed in context and compared with results provided by other authors, showing the relevance of the outcomes and subsequent future possibilities. It also creates a discussion in which the performance of other fiber technologies may be compared, as new B5G fronthauls with special attention paid to transmission in a single fiber, avoiding noise transfer between high power laser PoF source and 5G-NR data that affects the signal quality. PoF energy delivery efficiencies are also analyzed, achieving up to 9.9 % efficiency (from launched optical power to electrical power on the load) for a 3.1 km HCF and 0.9 % for a 11.1 km HCF. The PoF signal is used to supply a Bluetooth Low-Energy load.