Performance Evaluation of Constant Envelope OFDM Millimetre Wave Radio Over Fibre System with Square-law Detection

Theoretical analysis of a novel idea which combines Radio over Fiber (RoF) technology enabled millimeter wave (mmW) generation, constant envelope orthogonal frequency division multiplexing, and simple square law device based detection is reported. The analysis considers the Photo Detector (PD) shot noise generated at the transmitter and the impacts of the squaring operation at the receiver side on the signal as well as the additive noise. The results show that signal-noise beating term resulting due to the squaring operation at the receiver side will be a dominant source of interference at the detection stages. Power Spectral Density (PSD) of the signal-noise beating term is derived. Bit Error Rate (BER) performance evaluation in an additive noise environment as well as frequency non-selective Rayleigh fading environment forms part of the reported analysis.