All-fiber mode exchange of high-speed DP-QPSK signals using mechanical long-period fiber grating

Abstract

Mode exchange (ME) can effectively improve the utilization of network resources in short-distance mode division multiplexing (MDM) communication systems. In this paper, a mechanical long-period fiber grating (LPFG) mode converter is used to realize the channel exchange of LP01- and LP11-mode dual-polarization (DP) signals, with the channel crosstalk of −14 dB or less. We experimentally tested the receiver sensitivities of two DP channels, which are dependent on channel crosstalk and polarization-dependent loss (PDL), and demonstrated the practicability of the real-time data transmission and exchange for 100 Gb/s dual-polarization quadrature phase shift keying (DP-QPSK) in multiple-input multiple-output free (MIMO-free) MDM system. The experimental results show that the ME system can provide the optical power margin of about 25 dB, capable of effectively supporting the metropolitan transmission and exchange between the data centers.