Communicating Using Spatial Mode Multiplexing: Potentials, Challenges, and Perspectives

TLDR

Time, polarization, and wavelength multiplexing schemes have been used to satisfy the growing need of transmission capacity, and using space as a new dimension has recently been suggested as a versatile technique to address future bandwidth issues. The paper reviews the potentials of using space, particularly orbital angular momentum modes, as an additional degree of freedom for diverse communication applications, identifies associated challenges, discusses future perspectives, and outlines open research directions and practical deployment considerations. The review examines how spatial modes, especially orbital angular momentum modes, can be employed across free‑space optics, fiber, underwater, on‑chip, data‑center, RF, and acoustic links, and identifies the challenges specific to each application. The authors conclude with open research directions and practical deployment considerations for OAM communication links across various applications.

Abstract

Time, polarization, and wavelength multiplexing schemes have been used to satisfy the growing need of transmission capacity. Using space as a new dimension for communication systems has been recently suggested as a versatile technique to address future bandwidth issues. We review the potentials of harnessing the space as an additional degree of freedom for communication applications including free space optics, optical fiber installation, underwater wireless optical links, on-chip interconnects, data center indoor connections, radio frequency, and acoustic communications. We focus on the orbital angular momentum (OAM) modes and equally identify the challenges related to each of the applications of spatial modes and the particular OAM modes in communication. We further discuss the perspectives of this emerging technology. Finally, we provide the open research directions and discuss the practical deployment of OAM communication links for different applications.