Synchronous Clock and RF Carrier Transmission for Radio Access Network Fronthaul

TL;DR

This paper presents a novel method for radio access network fronthaul that combines clock phase caching and frequency comb transmission to achieve ultra-low noise RF carrier generation, precise clock synchronization, and stable data transmission.

Contribution

It introduces a new integrated approach for simultaneous clock synchronization and RF carrier generation in RAN fronthaul, achieving unprecedented jitter and wander performance.

Findings

<100fs jitter for 25GHz RF carrier

2.5GHz clock synchronization with <100fs jitter

16-hour 6.6ps RMS wander stability

Abstract

We simultaneously achieve clock synchronisation, clock-synchronised data transmission and ultra-low noise RF carrier generation by combining clock phase caching and frequency comb transmission in radio access networks (RAN). We demonstrate <100fs jitter for 25GHz RF carrier and 2.5GHz clock, and 16-hour 6.6ps RMS wander.