Power consumption of communication systems employing radio-over-fiber distributed antenna systems for railway

Demand on high speed communication and broadband access connection for fast moving passengers is rapidly increasing. However, the current wireless access communication techniques for railway which are mainly based on GSM for rail, satellite, and macro-cell cellular networks cannot meet the requirement of communication on fast moving trains. Cellular networks with small cell size and high carrier frequencies can be realized as a promising solution to overcome the current obstacles. In that situation, a radio-over-fiber distributed antenna system using WDM technology can be an attractive means to connect small base stations along the railway track to the control centers. However, considering a huge number of base stations placed along the railway track, power consumption will become one of the main concerns. In this paper, we investigate and optimize power consumption and energy efficiency of a Radio-over-Fiber distributed antenna system (RoF DAS) for railway. Based on the model, optimum system design in terms of remote antenna cell size and number of cells in a WDM ring are derived with respect to system energy consumption and efficiency. From the model we can also determine an appropriate scheme to upgrade a currently deployed conventional cellular network to a system employing RoF DAS technology. The power consumption and energy efficiency of the conventional and the upgraded systems are compared. The results demonstrate a significant save of power consumption and remarkable enhancement of energy efficiency when using a RoF DAS system.