Space division multiplexing optical communication using few-mode fibers

To realize ultra-high capacity long-haul transmission, space-division multiplexing (SDM) has emerged as a promising solution, in which each data channel is modulated into an individual spatial/polarization modes in few-mode fibers (FMF) to increase the overall number of parallel channels. In this paper, we review the latest advances in SDM technology on the FMF, component, digital signal processing (DSP), as well as transmission demonstrations. First, we introduce the FMF characteristics, fabrication and manufacturing issues including modal dispersion, mode coupling, and nonlinearities. We next discuss in detail several key SDM components such as spatial multiplexers/demultiplexers (MUX/DeMUX), optical amplifiers, mode converters and SDM reconfigurable optical add-drop multiplexer (ROADM). Accordingly, we explore the DSP algorithms for SDM systems, covering least mean squares (LMS), recursive least squares (RLS), hardware complexity analysis, and mode dependent effects. Besides, a number of recent experimental validations are evaluated enabling higher transmission capacity for short, medium and long distances.