A Core and Wavelength Allocation Scheme for Synergistic Transmission of Classical and Quantum Signals

Abstract

Wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) and space division multiplexing (SDM) can be used to implement coexistence of the classical and quantum signals. But some noises are introduced due to the SDM/WDM techniques, such as Raman, Four-wave mixing and inter-core crosstalk noises, which will restrict the performance of the quantum key distribution system (QKD). In this paper, we consider that the classical optical communication system is also affected by such noises. So, in order to improve the performance of the coexistence system based on WDM and SDM, we propose a dual optimized core and wavelength allocation (DOCWA) scheme to realize the synergistic transmission of classical and quantum signals over multi-core fiber. Experiments verify that the proposed scheme can suppress noise photons on classical and quantum channels up to 152.71% and 167.28% compared to the quantum equal frequency spacing scheme, respectively.