Modellization and Control of Spurious Frequency Generation due to Rayleigh Backscattering in Low-Frequency-Radio over Fiber Systems for Radioastronomic Application

Optical links based on the Radio over Fiber (RoF) Technology are, and are going to be, utilized within the antenna downlinks of important Radioastronomic facilities. In this context, the presence of spurious frequency terms has been observed despite the relatively low power levels of the transmitted of RF signals. The present work gives the theoretical explanation of the onset of these nonlinearities, and rigorously demonstrates an effective countermeasure to the undesired phenomenon.