Performance evaluation of OFDM and impulse-radio ultra-wideband over fiber distribution for in-building networks

This paper reports the compared performance of the two main ultra-wideband (UWB) implementations, OFDM-based (OFDM-UWB) and impulse-radio UWB, when transmitted over optical fiber for in-building communications employing external electro-optic modulation. Both UWB implementations providing similar spectral efficiency, 0.378 bit/s/Hz and 0.392 bit/s/Hz respectively, are analyzed when transmitted over 300 m of standard single mode fiber (SSMF) or multimode fiber (MMF) link. The experimental results indicate that OFDM-UWB transmission is feasible for optical launch power levels of 2 dBm for both SSMF and MMF distribution. The impulse-radio UWB implementation achieves error-free SSMF transmission from -4 dBm launched power. The experimental results indicate that successful MMF transmission can be only achieved for impulse-radio UWB at 3 dBm launched power level.