Integrated Microwave Photonics (iMWP) for 5G Mobile Networks
ABSTRACT
The advent of the fifth generation of mobile communications (5G) is promising to change the way people use the Internet and interact with it. Two figures that are often highlighted to illustrate this are a 1000-fold increase in mobile data traffic as well as a reduction of latency below the 1 ms threshold. The year 2018 plays an important role in evaluating how far we have come towards reaching this goal technically; also, major standardization documents for key markets are expected to be released in 2018. Moreover, major stakeholders have announced field trials to show the status of their pre-commercial solutions.
This talk will emphasize the potential role of photonics and specifically integrated microwave photonics (iMWP) can play in future mobile communication networks. Integrated photonic solutions that have been developed, implemented and tested by the European-Japanese RAPID5G consortium in a public field trial showcasing a fully-operational multi-Radio Access Technology (RAT) mobile network implemented in the largest shopping mall in Warsaw, Poland will be reported. The network supports novel 60 GHz 5G mobile access as well as legacy LTE and WiFi services. All mobile access services of the network are interconnected via optical fiber to the data centers of a mobile network operator and an internet service provider. Fronthauling for the 60 GHz 5G hotspot radio access units (RAUs) and for LTE is realized by analog Radio-over-Fiber (RoF) via a fiber-optic distributed antenna system (DAS). The 60 GHz 5G radio access units (RAUs) for the enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) use case and the WiFi access points are both backhauled via optical Gigabit Ethernet. The 60 GHz RAUs for the eMBB and hotspot use case feature 2D beam-switching and 1D beam-steering, respectively. Inter-RAT switching between the different mobile services with seamless user experience is achieved using Mobile IP and Fast Initial Link Setup (FILS).
BIOGRAPHY
Andreas Stöhr received the Dipl.-Ing. and Dr.-Ing. degrees in Electrical Engineering from Gerhard-Mercator-University, Germany, in 1991 and 1997, respectively. From 1987 until 1996 he was CEO of MS Steuerungsanlagen GmbH in Kerpen-Horrem, Germany. From 1996 until 2013 he was a research scientist at University Duisburg. In 1998 and 1999 he joined the Communications Research Laboratory (CRL) in Tokyo, Japan where he worked on 60 GHz wireless systems employing radio over fiber techniques. He also worked with France Telecom Orange Labs in Lannion, France in 2009 on complex IQ modulated 60 GHz radio over fiber system. He habilitated at the University Duisburg-Essen where he is head of the Optoelectronics department since 2011. In 2015 he has been with Corning Inc., NY, USA where he worked on extremely spectral efficient millimeter-wave and THz RoF systems.
His current research interests include III/V integrated microwave photonic device technology as well as RF and photonic integration technologies for millimeter-wave and THz communications, imaging and sensing applications. Prof. Stöhr has published more than 200 papers in refereed journals and conferences. He is a Senior Member in IEEE Photonics and MTT societies and a committee member and chair of a number of international conferences. He currently also serves as guest editor for the IEEE/OSA Journal of Lightwave Technology.