Orbital Angular Momentum Waves: Generation, Detection and Emerging Applications

Orbital angular momentum (OAM) has aroused a widespread interest in many fields, especially in telecommunications due to its potential for unleashing new capacity in the severely congested spectrum of commercial communication systems. Beams carrying OAM have a helical phase front and a field strength with a singularity along the axial center, which can be used for information transmission, imaging and particle manipulation. The number of orthogonal OAM modes in a single beam is theoretically infinite and each mode is an element of a complete orthogonal basis that can be employed for multiplexing different signals, thus greatly improving the spectrum efficiency. In this paper, we comprehensively summarize and compare the methods for generation and detection of optical OAM, radio OAM and acoustic OAM. Then, we represent the applications and technical challenges of OAM in communications, including free-space optical communications, optical fiber communications, radio communications and acoustic communications. To complete our survey, we also discuss the state of art of particle manipulation and target imaging with OAM beams

Mode division multiplexing using an orbital angular momentum mode sorter and MIMO-DSP over a graded-index few-mode optical fibre

Mode division multiplexing (MDM)– using a multimode optical fiber’s N spatial modes as data channels to transmit N independent data streams – has received interest as it can potentially increase optical fiber data transmission capacity N-times with respect to single mode optical fibers. Two challenges of MDM are (1) designing mode (de)multiplexers with high mode selectivity (2) designing mode (de)multiplexers without cascaded beam splitting’s 1/N insertion loss. One spatial mode basis that has received interest is that of orbital angular momentum (OAM) modes. In this paper, using a device referred to as an OAM mode sorter, we show that OAM modes can be (de)multiplexed over a multimode optical fiber with higher than −15 dB mode selectivity and without cascaded beam splitting’s 1/N insertion loss. As a proof of concept, the OAM modes of the LP11 mode group (OAM−1,0 and OAM+1,0), each carrying 20-Gbit/s polarization division multiplexed and quadrature phase shift keyed data streams, are transmitted 5km over a graded-index, few-mode optical fibre. Channel crosstalk is mitigated using 4 × 4 multiple-input-multiple-output digital-signal-processing with <1.5 dB power penalties at a bit-error-rate of 2 × 10−3

Mode division multiplexing zero forcing equalisation scheme using LU factorization

Optical networks is considered as the main backbone networks that handled the Internet traffic worldwide. Currently, the Internet traffic has had huge annual growth due to the increment in connected devices. At this rate, it is believed that the current technology in optical network will not able to handle this growth in the near future. Till recently, multiplexing techniques in the optical communication rely on modulation techniques where polarization, amplitude and frequency of the signal are used as the main data carrier. In these techniques, light modes are considered as an undesired effect causing modal dispersion. In contrast, mode division multiplexing (MDM) was introduced as a multiplexing approach which relies on the utilization of the light modes for the benefit of increasing the capacity-distance product of the optical network. As per any new technology, it is still facing a lot of problems preventing it from being commercially standardized and used. One of the main MDM issues is the mode coupling, which is an inventible phenomena occurs when the energy of one mode transfers to another mode during their propagation throughout the optical fibre causes inter-symbol interference (ISI), increasing the bit error rate (BER) and reducing the overall system performance. Different equalization schemes have been proposed so far attempting to mitigate the effect of mode coupling on the MDM optical signal. However, they suffer from high computational complexity and rely on training signals in estimating the optical channel which increases the overhead payload. These technique mainly rely on Least Mean Squared (LMS) and Recursive Least Squared (RLS) algorithms. The purpose of this study is to introduce a Zero Forcing LU-based equalization scheme for MDM. Previous research in the radio domain on multiple-input multiple output (MIMO) and orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) demonstrated that zero forcing schemes have low computational complexity compared to current schemes as they equalize the signal without training signals, thus reducing the overhead payload. All of the previous points motivate the work of this study to adapt this approach in optical communications. The study adopts the four stages of the Design Research Methodology (DRM). The initial data was collected from the optical simulator, processed and used to derive the transfer function (H) of the system. Then it was used to develop the equalization scheme in MATLAB. The experimentation on Zero Forcing LU based equalization scheme shows O(N) complexity which is lower than RLS which has O(N2) and faster than LMS, in fact, LMS needs an average of 0.0126 seconds to process the signal while ZF LU-based needs 0.0029 seconds only. On the other hand, the proposed equalization reduces the time delay spread of the channel, resulting three times increment in the capacity of the MDM channel and even lower computational complexity. The main contribution of this study is the reduction of the computational complexity of the previous equalization schemes in MDM. Applying this scheme in real MDM systems can produce more cost effective and smaller digital signal processing (DSP) parts for MDM equipment and can accelerate the work on the standardization of MDM for being commercially used as a multiplexing technique for optical communication networks

Optical and digital key enabling techniques for SDM-based optical networks

In order to support, in a cost-effective way, the data capacity demand in the context of future 5G networks, a new set of advanced technologies need to be explored, as it is the case of space-division multiplexing (SDM) along with energy efficient coherent detection based modulation formats. This paper presents the recent results on enabled optical networks based on SDM for high capacity optical networks compatible with 5G network infrastructure and data center connectivity. In particular, we demonstrate the viability of using Long-Period Gratings (LPGs) in multicore fibers (MCFs) to develop different components for multicore-based SDM systems, such as pump couplers and core/wavelength selective multi-core switches and couplers. Moreover, we also present and characterize the performance of different digital signal processing (DSP) algorithms and subsystems supporting optical coherent detection in SDM systems.publishe

Visible Light Communications towards 5G

5G networks have to offer extremely high capacity for novel streaming applications. One of the most promising approaches is to embed large numbers of co-operating small cells into the macro-cell coverage area. Alternatively, optical wireless based technologies can be adopted as an alternative physical layer offering higher data rates. Visible light communications (VLC) is an emerging technology for future high capacity communication links (it has been accepted to 5GPP) in the visible range of the electromagnetic spectrum (~370–780 nm) utilizing light-emitting diodes (LEDs) simultaneously provide data transmission and room illumination. A major challenge in VLC is the LED modulation bandwidths, which are limited to a few MHz. However, myriad gigabit speed transmission links have already been demonstrated. Non line-of-sight (NLOS) optical wireless is resistant to blocking by people and obstacles and is capable of adapting its’ throughput according to the current channel state information. Concurrently, organic polymer LEDs (PLEDs) have become the focus of enormous attention for solid-state lighting applications due to their advantages over conventional white LEDs such as ultra-low costs, low heating temperature, mechanical flexibility and large photoactive areas when produced with wet processing methods. This paper discusses development of such VLC links with a view to implementing ubiquitous broadcasting networks featuring advanced modulation formats such as orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) or carrier-less amplitude and phase modulation (CAP) in conjunction with equalization techniques. Finally, this paper will also summarize the results of the European project ICT COST IC1101 OPTICWISE (Optical Wireless Communications - An Emerging Technology) dealing VLC and OLEDs towards 5G networks

Advanced DSP Techniques for High-Capacity and Energy-Efficient Optical Fiber Communications

The rapid proliferation of the Internet has been driving communication networks closer and closer to their limits, while available bandwidth is disappearing due to an ever-increasing network load. Over the past decade, optical fiber communication technology has increased per fiber data rate from 10 Tb/s to exceeding 10 Pb/s. The major explosion came after the maturity of coherent detection and advanced digital signal processing (DSP). DSP has played a critical role in accommodating channel impairments mitigation, enabling advanced modulation formats for spectral efficiency transmission and realizing flexible bandwidth. This book aims to explore novel, advanced DSP techniques to enable multi-Tb/s/channel optical transmission to address pressing bandwidth and power-efficiency demands. It provides state-of-the-art advances and future perspectives of DSP as well

Enabling Technologies for Optical Data Center Networks: Spatial Division Multiplexing

With the continuously growing popularity of cloud services, the traffic volume inside the\ua0data\ua0centers is dramatically increasing. As a result, a scalable and efficient infrastructure\ua0for\ua0data\ua0center\ua0networks\ua0(DCNs) is required. The current\ua0optical\ua0DCNs using either individual fibers or fiber ribbons are costly, bulky, hard to manage, and not scalable.\ua0Spatial\ua0division\ua0multiplexing\ua0(SDM) based on multicore or multimode (few-mode) fibers is recognized as a promising technology to increase the\ua0spatial\ua0efficiency\ua0for\ua0optical\ua0DCNs, which opens a new way towards high capacity and scalability. This tutorial provides an overview of the components, transmission options, and interconnect architectures\ua0for\ua0SDM-based DCNs, as well as potential technical challenges and future directions. It also covers the co-existence of SDM and other\ua0multiplexing\ua0techniques, such as wavelength-division\ua0multiplexing\ua0and flexible spectrum\ua0multiplexing, in\ua0optical\ua0DCNs