Fiber Connectors for Mode Division Multiplexing using Multimode Optical Fibers

摘要

Mode Division Multiplexing (MDM) can increase the capacity of installed multimode fiber optic networks. One challenge preventing the wide adoption of this technology is the fact that fiber connectors may introduce a large lateral offset between the two fiber cores leading to increased loss, mode mixing, crosstalk, signal degradation, and reduced transmission distance. In this paper, we investigate the impact of lateral offset in MDM systems which use multi-plane light conversion (MPLC) to multiplex (MUX) and demultiplex (DEMUX) optical signals onto different modes. We also demonstrate 160 Gbit/s transmission over 1000 m OM4 multimode fiber using four mode groups.