Abstract
The paper describes the results to date of the RACE project R2005. The project addresses the optical generation and fibre delivery of mm-wave signals for future mobile radio and remote customer access connections. The authors identify potential application areas and appropriate performance targets for such fibre/mm-wave systems. The major issue identified is the need to achieve low-cost antenna units due to the large number of such units that would be required; this arises from the limited propagation distances achieveable at mm-wave frequencies. A brief review of current optical methods for the generation of mm-waves allows the identification of the inadequacies of these techniques and leads to a description of a new method, developed for the project, that overcomes most of the disadvantages outlined earlier.

Abstract
A frequency domain analytic study of laser nonlinear distortion is presented, based on the Volterra nonlinear functional series. This analysis is shown to predict all the intermodulation products up to third order, of particular relevance to the design of subcarrier multiplexed systems, when the laser is modulated by an arbitrary number of channels. Illustrative analytic and simulation results are presented for two and three input subcarriers and are shown to match very closely.

Abstract
The theory of nonlinear systems based on frequency domain analysis using Volterra series is shown to provide an appropriate means of assessing laser distortion which includes the effects of laser resonance. Hence, it is an appropriate and tractable means of assessing the performance of optical subcarrier multiplexed (SCM) systems. Based on this analysis the performance of SCM systems is examined, with calculation of the carrier-to-intermodulation ratio for an eight-channel SCM system providing an illustrative example.

Abstract
Analytic techniques proposed for distortion analysis are shown not to predict adequately the higher order terms generated by a semiconductor laser diode of relevance to the design and dimensioning of subcarrier multiplexed optical communications systems. A modified analysis which avoids this deficiency is outlined and illustrative results are presented.

Abstract
An intensity-referenced temperature-independent curvature measurement technique using a smart composite comprising two chirped fiber Bragg gratings is demonstrated. The two gratings are embedded on opposite sides of a composite laminate and act simultaneously as curvature sensors and as wavelength discriminators, enabling an unambiguous measurement of the composite radius of curvature.

Abstract
A new sensing configuration is proposed for simultaneous measurement of strain and temperature that relies on a single long period grating written by the electric arc technique. The underlying principle is the azimuthal asymmetry induced by the electric arc fabrication technique, which results in a device with polarization dependent insertion loss sensitive to both temperature and strain. With the proposed configuration, resolutions of +/- 2.8 degreesC/rootHz and +/- 13.9 muepsilon/rootHz are obtained for temperature and strain measurements, respectively.