Space Division Multiplexed Transmission of 109-Tb/s Data Signals Using Homogeneous Seven-Core Fiber

Abstract

We achieved record 109-Tb/s transmission over 16.8 km, using space division multiplexing (SDM) together with conventional multiplexing technology. 7-core SDM, 97 WDM (100-GHz spacing), 2 × 86 Gb/s PDM-QPSK signals were used. The spectral efficiency was 11.2 b/s/Hz. SDM transmission was realized using a multi-core fiber with ultra-low-crosstalk (less than -90.0 dB/km at 1550 nm) and high performance SDM MUX/DEMUX. The overall SDM crosstalk of -53 dB caused almost no penalty for the PDM-QPSK transmission.