Advanced radio over fiber network technologies

The evolution of wireless communication networks supporting emerging broadband services and applications offers new opportunities for realizing integrated optical and wireless network infrastructures. We report on some of our recent activities investigating advanced technologies for next generation converged optical wireless networks. Developments in Active Antenna Systems, mobile fronthaul architectures, and 60 GHz fiber distributed wireless networks are described. We also discuss the potential for analog radio over fiber distribution links as a viable solution for meeting the capacity requirements of new network architectures.