Toward 100 Gbits/s Ethernet with broad wavelength window multimode fiber

Abstract

With increasing demand for high-speed and quality voice, data, and video traffic, a high-performance and robust physical medium is needed to connect end users with optical access networks, which simultaneously allows easy and low-cost installation at customer premises. A new generation of multimode fiber (MMF) has been designed to address these requirements. By restricting the number of modes at both fiber input and output using off-the-shelf single-mode transceivers, single-wavelength 40 Gbits/s data transmission over a 3.4 km broad wavelength window multimode fiber has been demonstrated. A bandwidth distance product of 136 Gbits/skm is achieved. Receiver sensitivity can be readily improved (by 5 dB) by optical pre-emphasis of transmitted pulses. Along with coarse wavelength division multiplexing, we demonstrate that the proposed broad wavelength window MMF is a viable candidate as the physical medium of choice toward 100 Gbits/s Ethernet infrastructure.