Radio over Fiber for Wireless Communications: From Fundamentals to Advanced Topics

Chapter 14Fi-Wi for 4G, 5G, and OFDM Wireless Networks

In this chapter, let us review the key aspects of past, present, and future wireless networks and see how fiber feeders can help enhance these networks. Recent developments indicate wireless networks constantly move toward having small (micro, nano, pico and femto) radio cellular architecture, providing very high data rates at low latency and ensuring a high level of quality of service and reliability, which means fiber feeders will play a key role in these emerging networks.

The advances in mobile telephony can be traced in successive generations from the early ‘0G’ services like Mobile Telephone Services (MTS) to first-generation ‘1G’ analog cellular networks, second-generation ‘2G’ digital cellular networks, third-generation ‘3G’ broadband data services to the current state of the art, fourth-generation ‘4G’ all-IP wireless networks that are expected to support peak bit rates of 1 Gbit/s with full mobility. Fifth-generation or ‘5G’ is on the horizon and expected to bring perfect wireless connectivity—what some people call the World Wide Wireless Web (WWWW). An unprecedented number of smart and heterogeneous wireless devices will be accessing 5G wireless networks with a continuing growth of Internet traffic. Therefore, significantly higher wireless transmission rates, such as 10 Gbit/s peak data rates with 8–10 bit/s/Hz/cell, are expected in 5G systems. Moreover, energy-efficiency concepts will be fully integrated into ...