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Defence Technology 11 (2015) 76e84
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Feasibility analysis of WDM links for radar applications

D. MEENA a,b,*, FREDY FRANCIS c, K.T. SARATH c, E. DIPIN c, T. SRINIVAS a
b

a
Applied Photonics Lab, ECE Department, Indian Institute of Science(IISc), Bangalore, India
Electronics and Radar Development Establishment (LRDE), DRDO(Ministry of Defence), Bangalore, India
c
Model Engineering College, Thrikkakara, Cochin, India

Received 9 May 2014; revised 27 August 2014; accepted 10 September 2014

Available online 26 November 2014

Abstract
Active phased array antennas enhances the performance of modern radars by using multiple low power transmit/receive modules in place of a
high power transmitter in conventional radars. Fully distributed phased array radars demand the distribution of various signals in radio frequency
(RF) and digital domain for real time operation. This is normally achieved through complex and bulky coaxial distribution networks. In this
work, we intend to tap the inherent advantages of fiber links with wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) technology and a feasibility study to
adapt these links for radar applications is carried out. This is done by analysing various parameters like amplitude, delay, frequency and phase
variation response of various radar waveforms over WDM links. This also includes performance evaluation of non-linear frequency modulation
(NLFM) signals, known for better signal to noise ratio (SNR) to specific side lobe levels. NLFM waveforms are further analysed using pulse
compression (PC) technique. Link evaluation is also carried out using a standard simulation environment and is then experimentally verified with
other waveforms like RF continuous wave (CW), pulsed RF and digital signals. Synchronization signals are generated from this variable duty
cycle digital signals during real time radar operation. During evaluation of digital signals, variable transient effects for different duty cycles are
observed from an amplifier configuration. A suppression method is proposed to eliminate this transient effects. Further, the link delay response is
investigated using different lengths of fiber spools. It can be inferred from the experimental results that WDM links are capable of handling
various signals significant to radar applications.
Copyright 2014, China Ordnance Society. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords: WDM; Radar; RF over fiber; EDFA transient; Delay; CW; Pulsed CW; NLFM

1. Introduction
Conventional radar signal distribution networks are
designed with coaxial cable or space-feeds, which make the
system bulky, complex, massive and inflexible [1,2]. The
inherent advantages of optical link is reduced size, weight and
loss, low attenuation, immunity to electro-magnetic interference (EMI), and high bandwidth capacity [3]. Along with the
advancements in microwave photonic device technology, the

* Corresponding author. Electronics and Radar Development Establishment

(LRDE), DRDO(Ministry of Defence), Bangalore, India.
E-mail addresses: [email protected], [email protected]
(D. MEENA).
Peer review under responsibility of China Ordnance Society.

possibility for distribution of signals in optical domain had

been opened up.
During 1980's, the components capable of working in the
microwave domain emerged. Pan [2] describes an optical link
capable of working at 5 GHz. By 1984, a Ti: LiNbO3 MachZehnder interferometer type external modulator capable of
working at 17-GHz was developed to work in 830 nm [4]. In
1987, Stephens et al. [5] described a complete radio over fiber
(RoF) link while comparing the performances of direct modulation and external modulation using loss, SNR (signal to
noise ratio), linearity, etc., as the parameters for 4.1e4.7 GHz
and 2.0e12.0 GHz. In 1988, the applications of radar X-band
signal in fiber optic links were studied by a team in Malibu [6].
They were primarily interested in providing RF delay using
fiber optic link for application in radar phase noise test set and

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D. MEENA et al. / Defence Technology 11 (2015) 76e84

radar repeater test. Link characterisation was also done for

AM and FM modulations in direct and external modulations
using 1300 nm InGaAs laser. Cox et al. [7] described an
analytical lumped-element small-signal model of directly and
externally modulated analog fiber optic link. The designed link
was described to be superior to others in providing a
maximum bandwidth of 22 MHz for externally modulated link
(11 dB transducer gain, 6 dB noise figure) and 1 GHz bandwidth for directly modulated link (
14 dB transducer gain,
33 dB noise margin). They theoretically proved that the efficiency of externally modulated Mach-Zehnder modulator
(MZM) operated at moderate bandwidth with high optical
power is several times higher than that of direct modulation.
Due to the versatility and practicality of optical links, soon
results were available in introducing true time delays in phased
array antennas [8]. The paper also provides a method to
overcome beam squinting and describes the use of fiber delay
loops in introducing a phase delay in microwave regime,
which is expected to have a great impact on phased array
antenna construction. It is only a matter of time that the optical
system finds its way into the avionics industry, where light
weight and immunity to EMI are highly desirable. Slaveski
et al. [9] discussed the transmission of analog AM and FM
signals over a WDM link along with FSK digital modulated
signal between antennas and on-board avionic equipment. The
results were promising with insertion loss of
55 dB, carrier
to noise ratio (CNR) and SNR of more than 40 dB, total
harmonic distortion (THD) of less than 7% and BER of more
than 1.85e-07. This proves that the link works as efficiently as
coaxial cable in antenna-cockpit link with the additional
benefits of WDM optical systems.
In 2007, the researchers at Thales reported about the feasibility study of using RF photonics for radar applications [1],
which proved that the commercial optical components are
matured enough to carry radar signals. They tested the link with
local oscillator (LO) and pulsed RF signals and, they designed
the direct modulated narrow band and wide band links using
active and reactive matching networks. In this work they
brought the results for direct modulated and external modulated
link performance in terms of frequency response, noise spectral
density curve vs RF frequency curve. They used CWDM
(coarse WDM) optical link as part of a demonstrator architecture. The experiments prove without doubt that the optical
components have matured enough to be used in military.
Ballal et al. performed a comparative study of analog and
digital RoF links in terms of their merits and demerits [10].
They mentioned that various disadvantages, such as nonlinearity and chromatic dispersion, of analog RoF link can
be mitigated by use of digital RoF link. Bit error rate (BER)
and SNR for various input schemes, such as BPSK, QPSK and
16 QAM, were analysed for analog and digital links, and their
comparison was presented. Digital RoF link shows improved
performance in terms of BER parameters.
More studies followed as in Ref. [11], which characterized
a direct modulated optical link for X-Band chirp modulated
radar signal. Further, the link was inserted within SalexGalileo LPI radar and the results were obtained without any

77

performance degradation. Yao [12] described the possibility of

RoF distribution along with photonic true time delay beam
forming. Ghelfi et al. [13] proposed a fully photonics-based
coherent radar, exploring usage of optical components to the
maximum extent, rather than using photonic components only
for distribution of signals. This is achieved by generating of
stable radio frequency signals having arbitrary waveforms and
detecting the signals by direct digitization without downconversion. Xu et al. [14] described about the advantage of
using photonic techniques to generate and distribute the microwave signals and also addressed various challenges in
system realization.
In this paper, we bring out other measurement results with RF
signals in terms of amplitude, delay, frequency and phase variations occurring in WDM links. As the phased array antenna has
large number of transmit/receive modules, a splitter with large
splitting ratio is used to distribute the signals. To compensate for
this splitter loss, an optical amplifier is required in the WDM link
configuration. Modern multifunction radar uses variable duty
cycle signals for its normal mode of operation. We also analyse
the effects of digital signals in amplifier based WDM links and
observed the transient effects with variable duty cycle digital
signals. We also discuss a transient suppression method for the
transmission of variable duty cycle digital signals over fiber links.
During experimental evaluation, the different signals significant
to radar, such as CW, pulsed CW and NLFM waveforms, are fed
through the WDM link. The measurements are repeated by using
different fiber spool lengths to measure signal delay, which tallies
with the mathematically computed signal delay value. Even
though the experiments are carried out for measurement of
various parameters, we mainly focus on amplitude and delay
variations within the scope of this paper. But some of the measurement results, such as frequency vs. time and phase vs. time
plots, are considered to ensure the link adaptability to different
waveforms.
2. Experiment
In a radar system, the echo signals are converted to intermediate frequency (IF) signals during receive operation. This
down conversion process requires different local oscillator
(LO) signals at each receiver module. Additionally, active
phased array requires the distribution of digital signals of a bitrate <1 M bit/s for control and monitoring purpose. A phase
reference signal, having a stringent inter-element phase error
requirement, is also presented to ensure synchronous operation
among multiple transmit/receive modules.
Fig. 1 shows an experimental setup. RF signal is externally
modulated using a CW laser operating at 1550 nm and MachZehnder modulator (MZM), while the digital signal is directly
modulated using a DFB laser.
The digital signals in differential format are normally used
in a radar system to reduce the common mode noise occurring
in the transmission line. Therefore, in order to test this kind of
signal, a single ended digital signal is first converted to differential signal format using a RS422 transmitter module. A
differential optical transmitter module then directly modulates

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D. MEENA et al. / Defence Technology 11 (2015) 76e84

Fig. 1. Block diagram of WDM link- experimental set-up.

a DFB laser to produce the modulated optical output. These

signals are then multiplexed using a 2:1 arrayed waveguide
grating (AWG) type multiplexer. Finally at the receiver stage,
the signals are demultiplexed and retrieved using respective
detector modules. The different parameters associated with
WDM link are listed in Table 1.
Fig. 2 shows an experimental set-up. A radar transmitter
operating in 2e4 GHz is used as the RF signal source. A
digital signal similar to synchronization signal in a real time
radar system is generated using the digital signal source. The
spectra of different waveforms are observed using a real time
spectrum analyser (RTSA). This configuration helped in
measuring the attenuation values associated with transmission
of RF signals over a WDM link. The delay occurring in the
link was measured using a digital storage oscilloscope (DSO).
The experiment was repeated using different kinds of radar
waveforms like continuous wave (CW), pulsed continuous
wave and NLFM waveforms. Other RTSA plots used for the
measurement include normal spectral plot, digital phosphor
technology (DPX) [15] waveforms, amplitude vs. time (envelope) plot, frequency vs. time plot, and phase vs. time plot.
3. Results
A RF signal with a frequency of 3.1 GHz and amplitude

12.43 dBm is used as the source signal in WDM link for

Fig. 2. Measuremental set-up. 1- differential signal-optical signal converter; 2differential signal generator; 3- digital signal source; 4- DSO; 5- RF over fiber
receiver; 6- spectrum analyzer; 7- radar transmitter; 8- mux/demux; 9- RF over
fiber transmitter.

measuring CW-RF waveform parameters. Figs. 3 and 4 show

the waveform spectra for a continuous wave input and output
signals, respectively. It can be observed from Fig. 3 that the
input spectra is reproduced at the receiver end, retaining the
critical central frequency and bandwidth criteria. As the critical waveform parameters are retained at the receiver end, we
now focus on other parameters like amplitude, delay, frequency and phase for further analysis. A few of the experiment
results are included in the following sections.
Figs. 5 and 6 show the DPX waveforms of pulsed continuous wave signal at link input and output. Again output signal
is observed with a constant attenuation of 27.52 dB without
significant distortion.
Table 2 summarizes the measured results of different test
cases. It should be noted that the link incurred a net loss of
approximately 27 dB, which is independent of waveforms.
It can be observed that both the optical signals (at 1310 and
1550 nm) were continuously present throughout the experiment, confirming that there is no crosstalk between the signals
in WDM FOL [9]. The measurement results of an intensity
modulation-direct detection, linearly frequency-modulated
(LFM) signal and X-band radar signal over a single analog
link were discussed in Ref. [11]. But this paper deals with an

Table 1
Parameters of optical link.
No

Parameter

Value

1
2
3
4
5
6
7

Wavelength/nm
Fiber type
RF connector
Optical connector
Laser power output/dBm
Photodiode
RoF Tx/Rx- wavelength range/nm (laser)
RoF Tx/Rx- frequency range (RF)
Length of fiber spool/m

1550 (RF), 1510 (digital)

Single mode
SMA, female
FC/APC
7
PIN
1530e1565
50 MHz to 18 GHz
150, 500, 1000

Fig. 3. Waveform spectrum of continuous input signal.

D. MEENA et al. / Defence Technology 11 (2015) 76e84

79

Fig. 4. Waveform spectrum of continuous output signal.

Fig. 6. DPX waveform of pulsed output signal.

externally modulated WDM link using other waveforms like

CW, pulsed CW and NLFM radar signals.
After the evaluation of amplitude variation with various
radar waveforms, the link is evaluated further for other parameters like phase, frequency and delay. Fig. 7 shows the
phase variation of continuous signal (3.1 GHz) at link output
with respect to time. It can be observed that the linear phase
relation is maintained while the signal is transmitted through
the link.
NLFM waveforms are used in modern radars owing to their
improved security and better side lobe reduction [16].
Fig. 8 shows output NLFM waveform. It can be seen that
the envelope is faithfully reproduced.
Figs. 9 and 10 show the frequency vs. time of NLFM input and
output signals. The variation in frequency with respect to time can
be observed to be nonlinear, and controlled by the non-linear
coefficients used in the generation of waveform. Non-linear frequency variation of the input can be seen to be faithfully reproduced at the link output. But spectrum output alone cannot
represent the side lobe level requirements. Therefore a pulse
compression (PC) technique is performed on the captured samples I and Q (using RTSA) of WDM output signal.

captured using RTSA and processed with necessary NLFM

coefficients to obtain a pulse compressed output of both the
WDM input and the output signals. Figs. 11 and 12 show the
pulse compressed results (red (in the web version)) of input
and output signals along with corresponding envelope of
NLFM signals (green (in the web version)). Figs. 11 and 12
show the expanded view of a single output pulse, whereas
the actual transmit signal is a burst of a specific number of
continuous pulses. A particular radar application requires a
side lobe level of approximately 20 dB to attain a certain level
of radar performance. But the resultant output signal side lobe
level is approximately 25 dB (Fig. 12), satisfying the required
performance level.

3.1. Pulse compression of NLFM waveform

During measurement of NLFM waveform, the real time
samples I and Q (in phase, quadrature) of output signal are

3.2. Simulation results

The amplitude variation for the same WDM link model is
evaluated in a standard simulation environment (OptiSystem)
to substantiate the experimental results (Fig. 13). A RF signal
in GHz range and a digital signal in MHz range are used as
input signals for evaluation purpose. The RF signal is externally modulated using a Mach-Zehnder modulator. Since
OptiSystem does not support complex waveforms like NLFM,
LFM, etc., a mathematical model of Mach-Zehnder modulator,
which supports the generation and modulation of signals with
various controlling parameters, was developed in MATLAB.

Table 2
Measured values.
Signal type

Fig. 5. DPX waveform of pulsed input signal.

WDM RF I/P/dBm

WDM RF O/P/dBm

Measured values with DPX waveform

Continuous

12.43

39.6
NLFM

11.83

39.58
Pulsed

12.1

39.62
Measured values with waveform spectrum
Continuous

12.57

39.83
NLFM

32.06

59.x66
Pulsed

18.73

46.32
Measured values with amplitude vs. time plots (envelope)
Continuous

12.41

39.26
NLFM

10.99

38.83
Pulsed

11.01

38.47

Link loss/dB
27.17
27.75
27.52
27.26
27.6
27.59
26.85
27.84
27.46

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D. MEENA et al. / Defence Technology 11 (2015) 76e84

Fig. 7. Phase vs. time for output waveform of CW radar signal.

Fig. 10. Frequency vs. time for output waveform of NLFM signal.

Fig. 8. Amplitude vs. time for output waveform of NLFM signal.

This model is used as a co-simulation component in OptiSystem environment along with other components for link
evaluation. The modulation part of the same component is
used for evaluation of CW RF signal. The obtained results
show a link loss of ~27 dB, tallying with the experimental
results (refer Table 3) for input of
12.182 dBm and output of

39.479 dBm.
3.3. Delay measurement for WDM link

Fig. 11. Envelope of input RF and pulse compressed output e expanded view.

by using a 2-way power divider and given simultaneously to

DSO and WDM input. The WDM output is fed to another
DSO channel. The cables used were calibrated prior to
experiment.
Figs. 14 and 15 show the DSO outputs for 500 m and
1000 m long optical fiber links, respectively. The pulses are
delayed by 2.56 and 5 ms for 500 m and 1000 m long links,
respectively.

During the measurement of delay, a pulsed RF signal,

(pulse width of 1 ms and period of 10 ms) is divided into two

Fig. 12. Envelope of output RF and pulse compressed output e expanded view.
Fig. 9. Frequency vs. time for input waveform of NLFM signal.

D. MEENA et al. / Defence Technology 11 (2015) 76e84

81

Fig. 13. WDM co-simulation model in standard optical simulation software environment.

Table 3
Link loss.
RF I/P/dBm
Experimental results

12.43
Simulation results

12.182

RF O/P/dBm

Link loss/dB

39.60

27.17

39.479

27.279

4. Discussion on results
4.1. Amplitude measurement
From Table 2, it is evident that, for the different kinds of RF
signals, the WDM link introduced an attenuation of approximately 27 dB, which can be attributed to the losses at various

components, as given in Table 4. This parameter is very

important due to the fact that any variation in signal parameters of the output signal affect the performance of the radar
when WDM links are used as a part of the distribution networks. Since this attenuation value is deterministic, it can be
compensated either by RF or optical amplifiers as per the
requirements.
The total loss of 27 dB observed with analog WDM links is
found to be in consistence with the results in Ref. [7]. Even
though the direct modulation is cheaper, simpler and offers a
higher conversion efficiency, it can cause frequency modulation at its optical output due to the modulation of refractive
index of laser cavity by the modulating signal. This spurious
frequency modulation distorts the frequency modulation of the
signal [1,11]. The measured results shows that the externally

Fig. 14. Delay of pulsed RF signal with fiber length of 500 m.

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D. MEENA et al. / Defence Technology 11 (2015) 76e84

in Table 5. The delay parameter is of primary importance in

radar systems, and any delay could be taken as Doppler shift.
As the optical delay is deterministic, it can be compensated in
an efficient manner.
5. Digital signal: measured results and discussion

Fig. 15. Delay of pulsed RF signal with fiber length of 1000 m.

Table 4
Loss budget of WDM link.
No.

Component

Insertion loss/dB

1
2
3
4
Total loss

RoF transmitter module

Wide band AWG mux
Wide band AWG demux
RoF receiver module

9
4.5
4.5
8
26

modulated analog links are free from these distortions, as also

shown for FM and AM analog links [9] with external
modulation.
4.2. Delay measurement
The delay incurred in an optical link is primary attributed to
the refractive index and length of fiber. Component propagation delays are small and hence neglected. A single mode fiber
with an effective refractive index of 1.5 and carrying a
1550 nm optical signal is used for measurement. The expected
delay is
DT

1
v

where l is the length of fiber; v c=n is the speed of light in

optical fiber; c is the speed of light in vacuum (3  108 m/s);
and n is the effective refractive index of optical fiber.
Therefore,

Digital signals are used in radar systems for control and

monitoring purpose. These signals may vary in their bit-rate
and duty cycle. The measured result of direct modulated
digital signal (Fig. 1) was found to be similar to that of the RF
signal, where the insertion loss associated with RoF transmit/
receive modules were replaced with the conversion losses of
DFB laser and detector.
Signal distribution in a large array demands the use of
optical amplifiers to compensate these losses incurred for
splitting a signal to a large number of transmit/receive modules. These losses increases with splitting ratio. The splitting
loss can be computed as 10 log N, where N being the splitting
ratio, i.e., 1: 64, can cause a signal attenuation of 18 dB along
the link. Thus optical amplifiers are used to boost the signal
level. Er-doped fiber amplifiers (EDFA) is commonly used for
this purpose. But it was observed that the digital signals suffer
from transient effect with saturated EDFA as reported in Refs.
[17,18]. Additional links may require gain flattening circuits
based on the application. Singh et al. [19] presented a RamanEDFA hybrid optical amplifier configuration. This amplifier
configuration provides a flat gain of greater than 10 dB
without any gain flattening circuits. But our work focus on
variable transients observed with different duty cycle signals.
This can degrade the digital signal transmission through fiber
link.
A configuration shown in Fig. 16 is used to analyse the
transient effect while amplifying the digital signals in the
optical links. A 1530 nm laser diode (1 mW) is modulated by a
2 kHz digital signal. Except for EDFA, this set-up is consisted
by the components available as parts of a commercial WDM
test unit, which is capable of generating variable duty cycle
pulse signals. The laser output is amplified using an EDFA
operating in the saturation region with a pump power of
30 mW (980 nm). EDFA used is 10 m in length, Er lifetime is

1) Theoretical delay for 500 m long fiber is around 2.5 ms.

2) Theoretical delay for 1000 m long fiber is around 5 ms.
These values are also found to be comparable to the
measured results, as shown in Figs. 13 and 14 and summarized

Table 5
Delays for various test cases.
Signal
type

Delay in 150 m
long fiber/ms

Delay in 500 m
long fiber/ms

Delay in 1000 m
long fiber/ms

NLFM
Pulsed

0.8
0.8

2.52
2.56

5
5

Fig. 16. Schematic diagram of experimental set-up used for EDFA transient
effect measurement.

D. MEENA et al. / Defence Technology 11 (2015) 76e84

Fig. 17. Measured transients for 2 kHz pulsed signal - input (yellow) and
output (blue).

10 ms, Er ion density is 2  1025 m-3, numerical aperture is

0.24, core radius is 2.2 mm, and Er doping radius is 2.2 mm.
The output is then passed on to a photo detector of WDM unit,
and the electrical output is observed using a DSO.
Fig. 17 shows the transient effect observed in the output
digital signal. The spikes occurring at the output pulses are
due to transient effects. As the digital signals used in radar
system are primarily used for control and synchronizing, any
change in signal characteristics can seriously degrade the
beam formation and radar operation.
Additionally, the pulsed signals used for synchronization
are produced based on a transmit waveforms that are random
in nature and have different duty cycles. The transient effects
for different duty cycles are simulated and is shown in Fig. 18.
It can be observed that the transient peaks and slope decrease
with the increase in duty cycle, which can be explained to be
due to greater time available for EDFA gain recovery. These
transients are following an exponential curve mentioned in
Ref. [13]. The mathematical derivation of the same is not
included in this paper.

Fig. 18. EDFA Transients with 10, 20 and 50% duty cycle (2 KHz pulsed
signals, pump power at 60 mW).

83

Fig. 19. Transient effect in a digital signal of duty cycle 60% input (blue),
output (yellow).

Fig. 19 shows the measured transient result for a digital

signal with pulse width of 300 ms and period of 500 ms.
In addition, it was observed that the effect of transients can
be reduced by multiplexing an additional signal, with a complementary pulse, along the link with a nearby wavelength
(Fig. 20).
6. Conclusions
WDM-based optical networks are preferred over the conventional signal distribution schemes owing to their physical
compactness, low loss, light weight and immunity to EMI.
Conventional signal distribution network adds considerably to
the system complexity and bulkiness of the active phased arrays. It makes the system massive and demands high capacity
drive mechanisms for rotary joints. This paper explored the
feasibility of using optical WDM link for distribution of
different types of RF and digital signals, hence making the
system light and agile. The RF signals like CW, pulsed CW,
and NLFM waveforms generated from a radar transmitter was
used for experimental measurements. The results were

Fig. 20. Transient suppressed output.

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D. MEENA et al. / Defence Technology 11 (2015) 76e84

observed with a finite attenuation due to various component

losses incurred in the link, irrespective of the input signal used.
The amplitude variations for continuous wave signals were
verified using the simulation results. Since the link loss is
fixed, for a particular network it can easily be compensated by
using the amplifiers in the electrical or optical domain.
The experimental results of NLFM waveform was further
verified for side lobe requirements by using pulse compression
(PC) techniques. The experiments were also repeated with
various fiber spools. The results were observed with a delay
proportional to the length of the fiber spool. Therefore, delay
and attenuation, being deterministic parameters, can be
compensated based on the application requirements.
Further, the paper also discussed about the transient effects
associated with digital signals of variable duty cycle. This
transient effects can be reduced by adding an additional
complementary signal in the WDM link.
This kind of optical distribution helps in the generation of
radar signals outside antenna arrays and their distribution
through optical rotary joints. Thus it helps in providing a solution free from EMI/EMC related issues.
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