Photonics assisted millimeter-wave systems and methods

A communications network, comprising:

• a central communication unit configured to generate, within a selected millimeter-wave frequency band, a plurality of adjacent two-tone optical frequency conjugate pairs, wherein each optical frequency conjugate pair includes (i) a first optical tone carrying a modulated data signal, and a second optical tone carrying a reference local oscillator (LO) signal;
• an optical transport medium configured to transport the plurality of adjacent two-tone optical frequency conjugate pairs over a transport distance;
• and
• a plurality of radio base stations remotely located at substantially the transport distance from the central communication unit, wherein each base station of the plurality of base stations includes (i) an optical front end configured to receive at least one optical frequency conjugate pair from the optical transport medium, separate the first optical tone from the second optical tone of the at least one optical frequency conjugate pair, and convert the first optical tone into a millimeter-wave radio frequency (RF) electrical signal, and (ii) a radio antenna system configured to wirelessly transmit the millimeter-wave RF electrical signal to at least one wireless receiving device,
• wherein the second optical tone of the optical frequency conjugate pair received at the optical front end is phase-locked and frequency-locked to the first optical tone of the received optical frequency conjugate pair, and
• wherein the phase-locked first and second optical tones beat against one another, at the optical front end, to cancel at least one of induced phase noise and carrier frequency offset.