Performance of Direct-Detection Mode-Group-Division Multiplexing using Fused Fiber Couplers

© 2015 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works[EN] We present an end-to-end performance evaluation of a mode-group-division multiplexing system that uses direct detection instead of coherent detection, avoiding complex digital signal processing. The system transmits four data channels through a step-index fiber supporting six spatial modes comprising four mode groups, considering the two-fold degeneracy of the LPlm modes for l ≠ 0. Multiplexing and demultiplexing is performed using two- and three-core fused fiber couplers, each one phase-matched to a group of degenerate modes. These devices are analyzed through a field-based model that describes, for the first time to our knowledge, crosstalk between all the fiber modes. Propagation through the few-mode fiber is modeled considering differential modal attenuation, intermodal dispersion, chromatic dispersion, and both intergroup and intragroup modal coupling. The end-to-end link is described by a concatenation of matrix operators describing the optical field transfer functions for the multiplexer, fiber and demultiplexer. Error-free transmission of four 32-Gb/s OOK modulated data channels through a 1-km link proves the feasibility of the proposed direct-detection mode-group-division multiplexing approach.The work of I. Gasulla was supported by the Fulbright Commission and the Spanish Ministerio de Educacion through the Programa Nacional de Movilidad de Recursos Humanos del Plan Nacional de I-D + i2008-2011. The work of J. M. Kahn was supported by a Google Faculty Research Award.Gasulla Mestre, I.; Kahn, JM. (2015). Performance of Direct-Detection Mode-Group-Division Multiplexing using Fused Fiber Couplers. Journal of Lightwave Technology. 33(9):1748-1760. doi:10.1109/JLT.2015.2392255S1748176033

Transmission of 273.6 Tb/s Over 1001 km of 15-Mode Multi-Mode Fiber Using C-Band Only 16-QAM Signals

In recent years, space-division multiplexing (SDM) has been proposed and investigated as a technique to increase the per-fiber capacity in order to cope with the ever-increasing demand for capacity in optical transmission networks. Considering the various SDM architectures proposed, multi-mode fibers potentially allow for the highest spatial channel density, but current demonstrations have been limited to mostly short-distance high-mode count or long-distance low-mode count transmission. In this work, we transmit 15 modes × 184 wavelength channels × 24.5 GBd PDM-16-QAM signals, spanning the full C-band, over 1001 km of 15-mode multi-mode fiber. The resulting net data rate of 273.6 Tb/s is the highest reported data rate in long-distance multi-mode fiber transmission and results in a record capacity-distance product of 273.9 Pb/s · km for multi-mode transmission. This was achieved by using mode multiplexers with low mode-dependent loss (MDL) and insertion loss, as well as a 15-mode fiber optimized for a low differential mode delay (DMD) transmission regime

Statistical Analysis of Differential Group Delay in Few-Mode Spun Optical Fiber

This thesis proposes a statistical analysis of the differential group delay in few-mode optical fibers. The numerical analysis is performed by an accurate modeling of the propagation and coupling of a few-mode fiber, supporting the first 4 LP groups, perturbed by stress birefringence and core ellipticity and spun with a sinusoidal profile.ope

Optical Fibers for Space-Division Multiplexed Transmission and Networking

Single-mode fiber transmission can no longer satisfy exponentially growing capacity demand. Space-division multiplexing (SDM) appears to be the only way able to dramatically improve the transmission capacity, for which, novel optical fiber is one of the key technologies. Such fibers must possess the following characteristics: 1) high mode density per cross-sectional area and 2) low crosstalk or low modal differential group delay (DMGD) to reduce complexity of digital signal processing. In this dissertation, we explore the design and characterization of three kinds of fibers for SDM: few-mode fiber (FMF), few-mode multi-core fiber (FM-MCF) and coupled multi-core fiber (CMCF) as well as their applications in transmission and networking. For the ultra-high density need of SDM, we have proposed the FMMCF. It combines advantages of both the FMF and MCF. The challenge is the inter-core crosstalk of the high-order modes. By applying a hole-assisted structure and careful fiber design, the LP11 crosstalk has been suppressed down to -40dB per km. This allows separate transmission on LP01 and LP11 modes without penalty. In fact, a robust SDM transmission up to 200Tb/s has been achieved using this fiber. To overcome distributed modal crosstalk in conjunction with DMGD, supermodes in CMCFs have been proposed. The properties of supermodes were investigated using the coupled-mode theory. The immediate benefits include high mode density and large effective area. In supermode structures, core-to-core coupling is exploited to reduce modal crosstalk or minimize DMGD. In addition, higher-order supermodes have been discovered in CMCFs with few-mode cores. We show that higher-order supermodes in different waveguide array configurations can be strongly affected by angle-dependent couplings, leading to different modal fields. Analytical solutions are provided for linear, rectangular and ring arrays. Higher-order modes have been observed for the first time using S2 imaging method. Finally, we introduce FMF to gigabit-capable passive optical networks (GPON). By replacing the conventional splitter with a photonic lantern, upstream combining loss can be eliminated. Low crosstalk has been achieved by a customized mode-selective photonic lantern carefully coupled to the FMF. We have demonstrated the first few-mode GPON system with error-free performance over 20-km 3-mode transmission using a commercial GPON system carrying live Ethernet traffic. We then scale the 3-mode GPON system to 5-mode, which resulted in a 4dB net gain in power budget in comparison with current commercial single-mode GPON systems

Quantum information processing with space-division multiplexing optical fibres

The optical fibre is an essential tool for our communication infrastructure since it is the main transmission channel for optical communications. The latest major advance in optical fibre technology is spatial division multiplexing (SDM), where new fibre designs and components establish multiple co-existing data channels based on light propagation over distinct transverse optical modes. Simultaneously, there have been many recent developments in the field of quantum information processing (QIP), with novel protocols and devices in areas such as computing, communication and metrology. Here, we review recent works implementing QIP protocols with SDM optical fibres, and discuss new possibilities for manipulating quantum systems based on this technology.Comment: Originally submitted version. Please see published version for improved layout, new tables and updated references following review proces