A scheme for generating asymmetric single sideband photonic vector signal at millimeter wave spectral region is described. At a transmitter, information bits to be transmitted are modulated using a vector modulation technique to generate a baseband signal. The baseband signal is converted into its single sideband (SSB) version using a complex frequency source having a first frequency. The real part of the upconverted signal is added to the real part of a second frequency source and is input as I component to an I/Q modulator. The imaginary part of the upconverted signal is added to the imaginary part of the second frequency source and is used as the Q component. The I/Q modulator is driven by a laser source at frequency fc. The resulting signal is transmitter over an optical transmission medium and upconverted by a single-ended photodiode to a desired radio-frequency (RF) carrier frequency.

An optical and electrical hybrid beamforming transmitter, receiver, and signal processing method are provided. The transmitter includes, but is not limited to, two photoelectric converters, two adjusting circuits, and an antenna array. The photoelectric converter converts an optical signal into an initial electric signal, respectively. The adjusting circuit is coupled to the photoelectric converter, and are adapted for delaying the initial electric signal according to an expected beam pattern formed by the antenna array, respectively, to output an adjusted electric signal. The antenna array includes two antennas that are coupled to the adjusting circuit. The antenna radiates electromagnetic wave according to the adjusted electric signal. Accordingly, a phase of the signal may be adjusted, and the number of the elements may be reduced.

It is an object of the present invention a photonic system to perform beamforming of a radio signal received by a phased array antenna with N antenna elements. It provides true-time delay beamforming enabled by tunable optical delay lines (6) with a periodic frequency response.

The present invention provides four key advantages: photonic RF phase shifting; highly-sensitive coherent detection with intrinsic photonic frequency downconversion; phase noise cancellation, since a frequency-shifted optical local oscillator can be derived from a same laser source (1) used to feed electro-optic modulators (5); and the possibility of only requiring a single delay line, shared amongst all tunable optical delay lines. Such set of advantages makes the proposed system extremely attractive for high-end wireless receivers, required for demanding applications such as satellite communication systems and broadband wireless signal transmission.

An interference cancellation system may include a radio frequency (RF) transmitter configured to generate an RF interference signal, and an RF receiver configured to receive an RF input signal that includes a signal of interest component and an RF interference signal component from the RF transmitter. The system may also include an electro-optical (EO) modulator configured to apply an interference cancellation phase shift to the RF interference signal, an optical-to-electrical (OE) converter, and an optical path between the EO modulator and OE converter. The system may also include an RF dispersive delay filter connected to the OE converter, and an RF coupler connected to the RF dispersive delay filter and the RF receiver to subtract the RF interference signal component from the RF input signal thereby producing the signal of interest component.

A method of interference suppression with intermodulation distortion mitigation includes processing an RF signal comprising an RF signal of interest and an RF interfering signal to produce a first and second RF drive signal each with a desired RF interference signal power and having a 90 degree relative phase. The first RF drive signal is imposed onto a first optical signal with a modulator to generate a first modulated optical signal so that the modulator has a large-signal behavior that is characterized by a Bessel function of the first kind J.sub.1(ϕ), wherein the desired power at a frequency of the interference signal of the first drive signal is chosen to correspond to a zero of the Bessel function of the first kind J.sub.1(ϕ). The second RF drive signal is imposed onto a second optical signal with a modulator to generate a second modulated optical signal so that the modulator has a large-signal behavior that is characterized by a Bessel function of the first kind J.sub.1(ϕ), wherein the desired power at a frequency of the interference signal of the second drive signal is chosen to correspond to another zero of the Bessel function of the first kind J1(ϕ). The first and second modulated optical signal are combined with an optical power ratio that is selected to suppress third-order intermodulation distortion products in an electrical signal generated by detecting the optically combined first and second modulated optical signals.

A system has a plurality of non-linear circuit stages and an intervening linear circuit stage. An input signal is provided to a first non-linear circuit stage, and from the first non-linear circuit stage, to the linear circuit stage. The first non-linear circuit stage applies a second-order distortion to the input signal and provides the resulting signal to the linear circuit stage. The resulting signal that is output from the linear circuit stage is inverted with respect to the input signal and suitably linearly processed (attenuated or amplified). This signal is then provided to a second non-linear circuit that applies a second-order distortion and outputs a signal that has an overall reduction in second-order distortion.

An electro-optical oscillator includes, in part, a modulator, a signal splitter, N photodiodes with N being an integer greater than one, a signal combiner, and a filter. The modulator modulates an optical signal in accordance with a feedback signal. The splitter splits the modulated optical signal into N optical signals each delivered to a different one of N photo-diodes. Each of the N photo-diodes converts the optical signal it receives to a current signal. The signal combiner combines the N current signals received from the N photo-diodes to generate a combined current signal. The filter filters the combined current signal and generates the feedback signal. The electro-optical oscillator optionally includes, in part, N variable optical gain/attenuation components each amplifying/attenuating a different one of the N optical signals generated by the splitter.

The present application relates to a distributed antenna system, a method and an apparatus. The distributed antenna system comprises a digital-analog expansion unit and a remote cascade chain, the remote cascade chain comprising multiple remote units cascadingly connected by means of radio frequency cable, and a first remote unit of the remote cascade chain being connected to the digital-analog expansion unit by means of radio frequency cable. The digital-analog expansion unit is used to perform a baseband processing operation on a received external signal, and to perform interconversion of an analog RF signal and a digital RF signal. On this basis, the digital-analog expansion unit and the remote units use a cable connection-based daisy chain topology, which can both increase transmission bandwidth and effectively decrease transmission link costs; in addition, baseband processing being executed by the digital-analog expansion unit, and a remote unit not requiring baseband processing equipment, can effectively lower system component costs and operating power consumption. The present system is characterized by multi-mode, multi-band support and cell splitting, is easy to expand, and has low construction difficulty.

Methods, devices and systems for providing accurate measurements of timing errors using optical techniques are described. An example timing measurement device includes an optical hybrid that receives two optical pulse trains and produces two or more phase shifted optical outputs. The timing measurement device further includes two or more optical filters that receive the outputs of the optical hybrid to produce multiple pulse signals with distinctive frequency bands. The device also includes one or more photodetectors and analog-to-digital converters to receive to produce electrical signals in the digital domain corresponding to the optical outputs of the hybrid. A timing error associated with the optical pulse trains can be determined using the electrical signals in digital domain based on a computed phase difference between a first frequency band signal and a second frequency band signal and a computed frequency difference between the first frequency band signal and the second frequency band.

Devices, methods and systems for generating wideband, high-fidelity arbitrary radio frequency (RF) passband signals are described. A voltage tunable optical filter for arbitrary RF passband signal generation includes a first input configured to receive a broadband optical pulse train, a second input configured to receive a first control voltage representative of an amplitude signal, an electrooptic modulator to receive the broadband optical pulse train and the first control voltage, to modulate the broadband optical pulse train in accordance with the amplitude signal, and to produce two complementary optical outputs that form two arms of an interferometer, an optical delay component to impart an optical path difference into one of the complementary outputs of the electrooptic modulator, and a combiner or a splitter to receive two complementary optical outputs of the electrooptic modulator after impartation of the optical path difference and to produce an output interference pattern of fringes.