We demonstrate that a graded-index plastic optical fiber (GI POF) enables higher-quality radio-over-fiber (RoF) transmission of an orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) signal, compared with a conventional multimode fiber, for short-distance household applications (< 100 m). It is shown that the improvement in OFDM signal transmission, using the GI POF, can be attributed to the reduction in noise and intermodulation distortion, owing to the external optical feedback from the transmission fibers. The low noise and low distortion in the signal transmission are mainly due to the strong mode coupling in the GI POF, which is closely related to the microscopic heterogeneous structures in core polymer materials. The developed GI POF will be invaluable for RoF networks in households as a solution for indoor broadband wireless communications in the upcoming 5G era.

中文翻译：

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使用渐变折射率塑料光纤降低 OFDM 光纤链路中的噪声和失真

我们证明，与传统的多模光纤相比，渐变折射率塑料光纤 (GI POF) 能够实现更高质量的正交频分复用 (OFDM) 信号的光纤无线电 (RoF) 传输，用于短距离家庭应用（< 100 m）。结果表明，由于来自传输光纤的外部光反馈，使用 GI POF 的 OFDM 信号传输的改进可归因于噪声和互调失真的减少。信号传输中的低噪声和低失真主要是由于 GI POF 中的强模式耦合，这与核心聚合物材料中的微观异质结构密切相关。