Simultaneous all-optical frequency downconversion technique utilizing an SOA-MZI for WDM radio over fiber (RoF) applications

Simultaneous all-optical frequency-downconversion technique utilizing a semiconductor optical amplifier Mach-Zehnder interferometer (SOA-MZI) is experimentally demonstrated, and its application to a wavelength-division-multiplexing (WDM) radio over fiber (RoF) uplink is proposed. The conversion efficiencies from 22.5 (f(RF)) to 2.5 GHz (f(IF) = f(RF) - 2f(LO)) are in the range from 1.5 to 3 dB for the optical RF wavelength between 1548 and 1558 nm. Error-free simultaneous all-optical frequency downconversion of the two WDM RoF upstream channels that carry 155-Mb/s differential phase-shift keying data at 22.5 GHz to an optical intermediate frequency signal having the frequency of 2.5 GHz with,the power penalty less than 0.1 dB at the bit error rate of 10(-8) is achieved.