Frequency-interleaved SDM transmission over multicore fiber for next-generation short-reach optical interconnect systems

Abstract

Space division multiplexing (SDM) technique is proposed to overcome the bandwidth density drives of short-reach optical transmission systems by utilizing 8-core multicore fiber (MCF). Intercore crosstalk (XT) and higher order modulation format are the most challenging impairments of SDM based optical interconnect (OI) systems. To satisfy the exponential growth of the Internet traffic a frequency interleaving scheme is applied to short-reach MCF OI transmission systems. The negative effects of spectral overlap and intercore XT is reduced by shifting channel frequencies between adjacent cores. To exploit the full potential of SDM power efficient binary phase shift keying (BPSK) modulation format and digital signal processing such as multiple input multiple output (MIMO) equalization are used.