Optical wireless transmission at 1.6-Tbit/s (16×100  Gbit/s) for next-generation convergent urban infrastructures

Abstract

We present a high-data rate optical wireless system. The implemented system exploits polarization (PM) and wavelength multiplexing, achieving the transmission of a total capacity of 1.6 Tbit/s over hybrid fiber free-space optics (FSO) system with no optical-electronic-optical conversion at the interfaces with air. Quadrature phase shift keying modulation in each channel and coherent detection were used. The system allows enough power budget to support the record transmission of 16 channels, operating each at 100 Gbit/s over 40 km of fiber and 80 m of FSO between two buildings. Performance of the fully transparent connection is presented in terms of bit-error rate.