Abstract
Analog radio-over-fiber (A-RoF) technologies, including intermediate frequency-over-fiber (IFoF)
schemes, have attracted much attention for future mobile fronthaul (MFH) links because they simplify
the equipment deployed in wireless antenna sites and transmit wireless signals on an optical fiber with
high spectral efficiency; these advantages will be strongly required in future mobile services. In this paper,
we present MFH architecture consisting of broadband and narrowband IFoF links by combining analog
and digital signal processing for IF channel extractions and frequency conversions. In addition, we
show experimental results that verify the effectiveness of parallel intensity and phase modulators as a
broadband IFoF transmitter to compensate the influence of dispersion-induced RF power fading on wireless
signals and the above MFH architecture. We also review recent research activities related to A-RoF
and IFoF technologies for MFH and 5G mobile services.
