System and methods for fiber and wireless integration

1. A fiber-wireless transmitting system comprising:

a transmitter central office (CO), wherein a first lightwave is (i) modulated by transmitter data, and (ii) polarization multiplexed, to generate a PM-QAM modulated optical baseband signal; and

a transmitter base station (BS) operatively coupled to the transmitter CO by an optical fiber, wherein, after obtaining the PM-QAM modulated optical baseband signal from the transmitter central office via the optical fiber, the PM-QAM modulated optical baseband signal is (i) heterodyned with a second lightwave, and (ii) up-converted to a PM-QAM modulated wireless signal;

wherein the PM-QAM modulated wireless signal is at a mm-wave frequency of approximately f RF =c|1/λ 1 −1/λ 2 |, wherein c is the velocity of light, λ 1 is the wavelength of the first lightwave, and λ 2 is the wavelength of the second lightwave.

2. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a MIMO wireless transmitter having a plurality of horn antennas to transmit the PM-QAM modulated wireless signal.

3. The system of claim 2 , further comprising:

a receiver having a plurality of horn antennas that receives the PM-QAM modulated wireless signal;

a receiver base station, wherein the PM-QAM modulated wireless signal modulates a third lightwave to generate an E-field modulated signal at an optical carrier suppression point, and wherein a sideband of the E-field modulated signal and an optical carrier are filtered out by a tunable optical filter resulting in an equivalent PM-QAM modulated optical baseband signal; and

a receiver central office operatively coupled to the receiver BS by a second optical fiber, wherein, after obtaining the equivalent PM-QAM modulated baseband signal from the receiver BS via the second optical fiber, transmitter data is recovered from the equivalent PM-QAM modulated optical baseband signal by homodyne coherent detection and baseband digital signal processing.

4. The system of claim 3 , further comprising an electrical mixer to down-convert the received PM-QAM modulated wireless signal.

5. A fiber-wireless method comprising:

polarization multiplexing a modulated first lightwave to generate a PM-QAM modulated optical baseband signal;

transmitting the PM-QAM modulated optical baseband signal via an optical fiber; and

obtaining the PM-QAM modulated optical baseband signal from the optical fiber, and heterodyne beating with a second lightwave and up-converting the PM-QAM modulated optical baseband signal to form a PM-QAM modulated wireless signal;

wherein the PM-QAM modulated wireless signal is at a mm-wave frequency of approximately f RF =c|1/λ 1 −1/λ 2 |, wherein c is the velocity of light, λ 1 is the wavelength of the first lightwave, and λ 2 is the wavelength of the second lightwave.

6. The method of claim 5 , further comprising transmitting the PM-QAM modulated wireless signal via a MIMO wireless transmitter having a plurality of horn antennas.

7. The method of claim 6 , further comprising:

receiving the PM-QAM modulated wireless signal;

modulating a lightwave by the PM-QAM modulated wireless signal to generate an E-field modulated signal at an optical carrier suppression point;

filtering out a sideband of the E-field modulated signal and an optical carrier resulting in an equivalent PM-QAM modulated optical baseband signal;

transmitting the equivalent PM-QAM modulated optical baseband signal via a second optical fiber; and

recovering transmitter data from the equivalent PM-QAM modulated optical baseband signal obtained from the second optical fiber, by homodyne coherent detection and baseband digital signal processing.

8. The method of claim 7 , further comprising down-converting the received PM-QAM modulated wireless signal.