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Weakly-coupled mode division multiplexing over conventional multi-mode fiber with intensity modulation and direct detection

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Abstract

Multi-mode fiber (MMF) links are expected to greatly enhance capacity to cope with rapidly increasing data traffic in optical short-reach systems and networks. Recently, mode division multiplexing (MDM) over MMF has been proposed, in which different modes in MMF are utilized as spatial channels for data transmission. Strongly-coupled MDM techniques utilizing coherent detection and multiplex-input-multiplex-output (MIMO) digital signal processing (DSP) are complex and expensive for short-reach transmission. So the weakly-coupled approach by significantly suppressing mode coupling in the fiber and optical components has been proposed. In this way, the signals in each mode can be independently transmitted and received using conventional intensity modulation and direct detection (IM-DD). In this paper, we elaborate the key technologies to realize weakly-coupled MDM transmission over conventional MMF, including mode characteristic in MMF and weakly-coupled mode multiplexer/demultiplexer (MUX/DEMUX). We also present the up-to-date experimental results for weakly-coupled MDM transmission over conventional OM3 MMF. We show that weakly-coupled MDM scheme is promising for high-speed optical interconnections and bandwidth upgrade of already-deployed MMF links.

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Acknowledgements

The work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 61771024, 61627814, 61505002, 61690194 and 61605004), and Fundamental Research Project of Shenzhen Science and Technology Foundation (Nos. JCYJ 20170412153729436 and 20170307172513653).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Advanced Optical Communication Systems and Networks, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China

    Juhao Li, Zhongying Wu, Dawei Ge, Jinglong Zhu, Yu Tian, Jinyi Yu, Zhengbin Li, Zhangyuan Chen & Yongqi He

  2. Wuhan Research Institute of Posts and Telecommunications, Wuhan, 430074, China

    Yichi Zhang

Authors
  1. Juhao Li
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  2. Zhongying Wu
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  3. Dawei Ge
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  4. Jinglong Zhu
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  5. Yu Tian
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  6. Yichi Zhang
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  7. Jinyi Yu
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  8. Zhengbin Li
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  9. Zhangyuan Chen
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  10. Yongqi He
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Juhao Li.

Additional information

Dr. Juhao Li received the B.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Department of Electronics Engineering, Peking University, China in 1999 and 2009, respectively. During 1999–2000, he had been engaged in ZTE Corporation. In 2009 he worked in the State Key Laboratory of Advanced Optical Communication Systems & Networks at Peking University, firstly as a Postdoctoral Research Scientist, as a Lecturer from 2011, as an Associate Professor from 2012. His current research interests include high-speed optical fiber transmission systems and networks, design of optical fibers and components for optical communication, optical spatial division multiplexing techniques. He authored more than 140 papers, including about 60 SCI papers and more 25 OFC conference papers. He holds 4 authorized and 15 pending patents.

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Li, J., Wu, Z., Ge, D. et al. Weakly-coupled mode division multiplexing over conventional multi-mode fiber with intensity modulation and direct detection. Front. Optoelectron. 12, 31–40 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12200-018-0834-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12200-018-0834-9

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