Optical single sideband signal generation relying on a single-drive Mach-Zehnder modulator for radio over fibre communications

Abstract: Optical single sideband (OSSB) signals are conventionally generated using a dual-drive Mach–Zehnder modulator (MZM) or by using a single-drive MZM in conjunction with a fibre Bragg grating filter. In this study, the authors propose and mathematically characterise a novel radio over fibre downlink in which an OSSB signal is generated using a single-drive, rather than dual-drive, MZM without any additional filter. Additionally, their proposed scheme can achieve optical upconversion of the electronic signal. Furthermore, in addition to cost advantages, the proposed scheme’s BER performance is better than the classical OSSB signal generation scheme.