Crosstalk-Managed High Capacity Long Haul Multicore Fiber Transmission With Propagation-Direction Interleaving

Abstract

This paper describes ultra-high capacity long haul optical transmission technologies based on multicore fibers (MCFs) with space-division multiplexing. First, we discuss the factors limiting the total capacity and the attainable distance of MCF, and show that the transmission distances are severely limited by crosstalk (XT) between adjacent cores. Next, we discuss a propagation-direction interleaving (PDI) technique to suppress XT. In PDI, adjacent cores have different propagation directions, and thus, bidirectional transmission is realized by a single MCF. We discuss spectral efficiency and attainable distance of several MCFs and show that three-fold reach extension is possible by using PDI in 12-core fiber with dual-ring structure. We also describe a long haul transmission experiment on a 12-core DRS fiber with PDI.