Wireless to optical phase mapping in a seamless digital wireless-photonic link

This paper investigates the seamless mapping of wireless mmWave phase-levels to the optical phase-levels in a seamless digital mmWave-to-photonic converter. We report a non-linear mapping of phase-levels from the wireless to the optical domain which results in digital symbol degeneracy. Our work provides various optimum design guidelines to make such seamless converters practically feasible in digital communication links. The latency and the design complexity of such a seamless converter are expected to be appreciably lower than those of a conventional converter, thereby making it more suitable for 6G communication systems. Although the wireless operating frequency considered in this paper belongs to the mmWave band, all the contributions presented are equally applicable and relevant in the THz wireless band as well.