Home Search Collections Journals About Contact us My IOPscience

Exabit optical communication explored using 3M scheme

This content has been downloaded from IOPscience. Please scroll down to see the full text.

2014 Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. 53 08MA01

(http://iopscience.iop.org/1347-4065/53/8S2/08MA01)

View the table of contents for this issue, or go to the journal homepage for more

Download details:

IP Address: 222.124.193.132
This content was downloaded on 18/12/2014 at 04:21

Please note that terms and conditions apply.

Japanese Journal of Applied Physics 53, 08MA01 (2014) REVIEW PAPER
http://dx.doi.org/10.7567/JJAP.53.08MA01

Exabit optical communication explored using 3M scheme

Masataka Nakazawa
Research Institute of Electrical Communication, Tohoku University, Sendai 980-8577, Japan
Received February 12, 2014; accepted March 24, 2014; published online July 3, 2014

The capacity of the optical communication infrastructure in backbone networks has increased 1000-fold over the last 20 years. Despite this rapid
progress, internet traffic is continuing to grow at an annual rate of 40%. This means that in 20 years, we will need petabit/s or even exabit/s optical
communication. In this paper, we present recent challenges and efforts toward achieving a hardware paradigm shift to overcome the capacity
limitation imposed by the current optical communication infrastructure. We will overview the latest advances on the three “multi” technologies, i.e.,
multi-level transmission with ultrahigh spectral efficiency, space division multiplexing in multi-core fibers, and mode division multiplexing with
multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO). © 2014 The Japan Society of Applied Physics

Increase in Internet Traffic in Japan

1. Introduction

Link Capacity / fiber(s) [bps]

120

1 Tbit/s@2009

Internet traffic [Gbit/s]

100

The capacity of the optical communication infrastructure in 1E 80 40% increase per year 2nd Innovation 1E
•Multi-level coherent transmission
backbone networks has increased 1000-fold over the last 20 60

40
•Multi-core fiber
•Multi-mode control
years, and this has been made possible by the development of 20

1P 1P
the erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA) and wavelength
0
1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008
Year
Optical power limitation
100T Bandwidth limitation of
division multiplexing (WDM).1) Despite such rapid progress, WDM optical amplifiers
1st Innovation
information capacity is still growing at an annual rate of 40%, 1T EDFA, WDM
10Gx80 1T

which means that in 20 years we will need petabit/s or EDFA

10G
40G 100G
Moore’s Law
even exabit/s optical communication. However, it is widely 1.6G
2.4G TDM
1G 400M 1G
recognized that the maximum transmission capacity of a
100M
single strand of fiber is rapidly approaching its limit at 1980 1990 2000 2010 2020

³100 Tbit/s owing to optical power limitations imposed by Fiscal Year

the fiber fuse phenomenon2) and the finite transmission
bandwidth determined by EDFAs. This situation is depicted Fig. 1. (Color online) Technological overview of optical fiber
in Fig. 1. transmission.
To explore breakthrough technologies that will enable us
to exceed these limits and achieve a giant leap, we launched
a collaborative study group called EXtremely Advanced
Transmission (EXAT) in Japan in 2008, and advocated the
promotion of the three “M technologies” as shown in
Fig. 2.3) The first “M technology” is a multi-level modulation
format, which enables us to achieve a high spectral efficiency
comparable to that of wireless communication. The second
“M technology” is multi-core fiber (MCF), which employs
space division multiplexing (SDM). The third “M technol-
ogy” is mode division multiplexing in which multi-input and
multi-output (MIMO) technology, which originated from
wireless communication, will be useful for handling multi-
modes in multi-core/multi-mode fibers. These “multi”
technologies have attracted considerable interest from
researchers worldwide, and intensive efforts have been made Fig. 2. (Color online) 3M technologies for achieving >1000© capacity
to pursue these goals. As a result, a number of studies on the and throughput.
three M technologies have been reported simultaneously at
recent conferences, and rapid and substantial progress has
been made in these fields.4–33) 2. First “M”: Multi-level coherent transmission with
In this paper, we describe recent challenges and the efforts an ultrahigh spectral efficiency
we have made towards a hardware paradigm shift in the Achieving an ultrahigh spectral efficiency (SE) toward the
optical communication infrastructure by employing the Shannon limit is one of the targets of our three-M
“multi” technologies. This includes ultra multilevel coherent breakthrough technologies, which allows us to expand the
transmission including 1024 quadrature amplitude modula- total WDM capacity within a finite optical amplification
tion (QAM) and an ultrahigh-speed and spectrally efficient bandwidth. Of the various available formats, M-ary QAM is
transmission using optical Nyquist pulses, ultralow-crosstalk capable of approaching the Shannon limit most closely by
MCF and its application to SDM transmission, and mode increasing the multiplicity M. QAM is a modulation format
division multiplexing with MIMO technology. that combines two carriers whose amplitudes are modulated
08MA01-1 © 2014 The Japan Society of Applied Physics
Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. 53, 08MA01 (2014) REVIEW PAPER

0 10-2
10
10-3
-1
10 Uncoded
10-4

(R=0.8, Hard decision)

-2
10 10-5

BERout

Shannon limit
10-6

FEC (3rd gen)

BER

-3 1024 QAM
10 10-7
-4 512QAM 10-8
10
256QAM 10-9
-5
10 64 QAM 10-10
16 QAM
-6
10-11
10 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Qin (dB)
Eb/N0 [dB]

Fig. 4. (Color online) Relationship between BER after FEC and Q value
Fig. 3. (Color online) BER of 16–1024 QAM as a function of Eb/N0. without FEC.34)

3 Gsymbol/s 1024 QAM signal Pilot signal

w/ Nyquist raised cosine filter (roll off = 0.35) 2.03 GHz

Intensity
w/ FDE
Arbitrary QAM signal
Waveform 12 Gsample/s
Generator
f
Amplifier PC Att
IQ Mod. Optical Filter
(3.5 nm)
X Att
C2H2 Frequency EDFA PC PC
Y
Stabilized Fiber OFS
Laser (fOFS=2.03 GHz) PBC

75 km SLA 75 km SLA Prec 90°Optical Hybrid

Att PC X
B-PD A/D
90° B-PD Digital Signal
A/D
Optical filter (0.7 nm) B-PD A/D Processor
90°
Raman Raman B-PD A/D
PC
-1 dBm Pump -1 dBm Pump Y
PC Etalon DBM
Feedback
PD
Circuit
PC: Polarization Controller
OFS: Optical Frequency Shifter Synthesizer
PBC: Polarization Beam Combiner fsyn=2.03 GHz
SSMF: Standard Single-mode Fiber PC
DBM: Double Balanced Mixer Local
B-PD: Balanced Photo-Detector Oscillator
Optical Filter ( 2.5 nm) (Tunable Fiber Laser)

Fig. 5. Experimental setup for 1024 QAM (60 Gbit/s) coherent transmission over 150 km.

independently with the same optical frequency and whose
phases are 90 degrees apart. A 2N QAM signal represents N
bits, so it has N times the spectral efficiency compared with
OOK.
The challenge with respect to a higher QAM multiplicity is
to meet higher SNR and phase noise tolerance requirements.
Figure 3 shows the relationship between Eb/N0 and the
theoretical bit error rate (BER) for M-ary QAM. For a BER of
2 © 10¹3, the required Eb/N0 values are 21 and 24 dB for 512
and 1024 QAM, which corresponds to SNRs of 30.5 and
34 dB, respectively. To realize a better BER performance with
a lower Eb/N0, the forward error correction (FEC) technique
has been developed. Figure 4 shows the BER after applying
FEC vs the input Q value without FEC, Qin.34) Qin is the SNR
given by
I1  I0
Qin ¼ ð1Þ
1 þ 0
where I1 and I0 are the mean values and ·1 and ·0 are the
standard deviations of the bits corresponding to 1 and 0,
08MA01-2
respectively. Here, the Shannon limit describes the lowest Qin
value needed to achieve an infinitely low BER by employing
FEC under a certain code rate R:
R ¼ 1 þ BERin log2 BERin þ ð1  BERin Þ log2 ð1  BERin Þ
 
1 Qin
BERin ¼ erfc pffiffiffi ð2Þ
2 2
which is known as Shannon’s second theorem or the noisy-
channel coding theorem.35,36) This provides the ultimate limit
for the minimum Q value needed to achieve an infinitely low
BER. Recently, third generation FEC, namely a turbo block
code with a soft decision, has been developed that enables us
to realize BER performance very close to the Shannon limit.
This indicates the possibility of realizing ultrahigh spectral
efficiency by combining QAM and FEC.
Here we describe our recent demonstration of a 1024
QAM transmission, in which a polarization-multiplexed
60 Gbit/s signal was transmitted over 150 km.4) Figure 5
shows the experimental setup. As a coherent light source, we
used a 1.5 µm acetylene frequency-stabilized fiber ring laser
© 2014 The Japan Society of Applied Physics
Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. 53, 08MA01 (2014) REVIEW PAPER

α=0

α = 0.5 α=1
α = 0.5 α=1

α=0

(a) (b)

Fig. 6. (Color online) Transfer function (a) and impulse response (b) of a raised-cosine Nyquist filter for ¡ = 0, 0.5, and 1.

Back-to-back (X)
-1
Back-to-back (Y)
10 After 150km transmission (X)
After 150km transmission (Y)

-2
10

FEC threshold
BER

-3
10

-4
10

-5
10
-30 -25 -20 -15 -10
Back-to-back After 150 km transmission
Received Power [dBm]
(a) (b)

Fig. 7. (Color online) Experimental results for 60 Gbit/s 1024 QAM transmission. (a) BER characteristics. (b) Constellations before and after transmission.

with a linewidth of 4 kHz.37) The output of the laser was
modulated at an IQ modulator with a 3 Gsymbol/s 1024
QAM baseband signal produced by an arbitrary waveform
generator (AWG) operating at 12 Gsample/s. We employed
a raised-cosine Nyquist filter at the AWG using a software
program to reduce the bandwidth of the QAM signal. It is
well known in the microwave communication field that a
Nyquist filter is very useful for reducing the bandwidth of
a data signal without introducing intersymbol interference.38)
Figure 6 shows the transfer function and impulse response
of the raised-cosine Nyquist filter. The transfer function is
given by
8  ðf0:5Þ

1
< 2 1  sin 
> 0:5  2  jfj < 0:5 þ 2
HðfÞ ¼ 1 jfj < 0:5  2 ; ð3Þ
>
: we employed a split-step Fourier analysis of the Manakov

0 jfj  0:5 þ 2
where ¡ is called a roll-off factor. As shown in Fig. 6(b), the
impulse response becomes zero at the location of neighboring
symbols. This indicates that the bandwidth can be reduced
with the Nyquist filter while avoiding intersymbol interfer-
ence (ISI). We employed a root raised-cosine Nyquist filter
with a roll-off factor ¡ = 0.35 at the AWG as well as in the
digital signal processor (DSP) at the receiver using software,
so that the bandwidth of the QAM signal was reduced to
4.05 GHz. In addition, a pre-equalization process based
on frequency domain equalization (FDE)39) was adopted to
provide high-resolution compensation for the distortions
08MA01-3
caused by individual components such as the AWG and the
IQ modulator.
The optical QAM signal was then orthogonally polar-
ization-multiplexed and launched into a 150 km fiber link. At
the receiver, the QAM signal was homodyne-detected at a
90° optical hybrid. As a local oscillator (LO), we used a
frequency-tunable fiber laser whose phase was locked to the
pilot tone transmitted with the data signal via the optical
phase-locked loop (OPLL), which enables low phase-noise
coherent detection. After detection with balanced photo-
diodes, the QAM data were A/D converted and processed
with a DSP in an off-line condition. In the DSP, a digital
back-propagation method was adopted to compensate for
fiber nonlinearities and dispersion simultaneously.40) Here,
equation, which describes the pulse propagation in a fiber
with dispersion, SPM, and XPM between the two orthogonal
polarizations under a randomly varying birefringence.41)
Finally, the compensated QAM signal was demodulated into
binary data, and the bit error rate was evaluated.
The experimental results are shown in Fig. 7. In this
experiment, 60 Gbit/s data were transmitted within an optical
bandwidth of only 4.05 GHz. This indicates a net spectral
efficiency as high as 13.6 bit/s/Hz in a multi-channel trans-
mission, even when accounting for the 7% FEC overhead.
Along with the aim of higher multiplicity, it is very
important to explore ways of increasing the symbol rate,
© 2014 The Japan Society of Applied Physics
Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. 53, 08MA01 (2014) REVIEW PAPER

Optical Nyquist pulse train

40G
25 ps Multiplexer Demultiplexer
160G
40G
6.25 ps Optical Fiber
40G
40G

40G
Multiplexed 40G
Ultrafast optical
40G OTDM signal sampling
40G

Time

Fig. 8. (Color online) Basic configuration for ultrahigh-speed OTDM transmission using optical Nyquist pulses.

Optical 640 G 1.28 Tbit/s polarization-

Nyquist pulse DPSK Modulator
HNL-DFF generator multiplexed x7
1540 nm 40 G Optical
1.6 ps 2 km Q
640 Gbaud Delay 10 nm
EDFA PC EDFA
40 GHz Pulse
shaper MUX Δτ
MLFL PC
10 nm EDFA SMF IDF
CLK Q 50 km 25 km
40 Gbit/s
PPG
40 GHz 215-1 PRBS 525 km transmission
640 Gbit/s DPSK transmitter link

Optical PD
PC PBS // EDFA Delay PC 15 nm 1 nm ATT 2 nm
Pulse
Δτ DI
shaper
PC EDFA EDFA
Demod. Error
⊥ PC Detector
CLK EDFA 15 nm PC HNLF Prec
40 GHz 100m 40 Gbit/s DPSK
40 GHz MLFL
PLL
DFF 640 G 40 Gbit/s reciever
EDFA
1563 nm 500 m DEMUX
NOLM
800 fs
MLFL: Mode-Locked Fiber Laser DI: Delay Interferometer
HNL-DFF: Highly NonLinear-Dispersion Flattened Fiber ATT: Optical attenuator
CLK: Clock Recovery PD: Balanced Photo Detector
PPG: Pulse Pattern Generator NOLM: Nonlinear Optical Loop Mirror
IDF: Inverse Dispersion Fiber

Fig. 9. (Color online) Experimental setup for 1.28 Tbit/s/channel–525 km polarization-multiplexed DPSK transmission with 640 Gbaud optical Nyquist
pulse.

which are currently limited by the speed and bandwidth of
analog-to-digital (A/D) and digital-to-analog (D/A) con-
verters. To overcome these limitations, coherent optical time
division multiplexing (OTDM) has been demonstrated that
employs multi-level QAM modulation for ultrashort optical
pulses.5–7) However, typical pulse waveforms such as
Gaussian or sech profiles generally occupy a large bandwidth
in the frequency domain and thus may not be an appropriate
waveform in terms of SE. We recently proposed a new type
of optical pulse, which we call an “optical Nyquist pulse”,
whose shape is given by the sinc-function-like impulse
response of the Nyquist filter shown in Fig. 6(b).8) The
fundamental configuration of the ultrahigh-speed Nyquist
TDM transmission is shown in Fig. 8. The optical Nyquist
pulse trains are bit interleaved to a higher symbol rate by
OTDM. Here, in spite of a strong overlap, no ISI occurs due
to the zero crossing property of the Nyquist pulse at every
symbol interval. The OTDM demultiplexing from this
continuous data sequence can be realized with ultrafast
optical sampling, so that only data at the ISI-free point could
be extracted. In this way, it is possible to reduce the signal
08MA01-4
bandwidth without ISI during transmission, and therefore, the
SE can be significantly improved.
Here we present the 1.28 Tbit/s (640 Gbaud) polarization-
multiplexed transmission of Nyquist OTDM signals over
525 km.9) Figure 9 shows the experimental setup. In the
transmitter, we first generated an optical Nyquist pulse train
from a mode-locked fiber laser (MLFL) that emits Gaussian
pulses. The Gaussian pulses were transformed into a Nyquist
profile by using a spectrum manipulation technique based
on the spatial intensity and phase modulation of spectral
components with a liquid crystal spatial modulator.42) The
generated waveform is shown in Fig. 10(a), where the
periodic zero crossing in the tail can be clearly seen. The
optical Nyquist pulses were then DPSK modulated at 40
Gbit/s and multiplexed to 640 Gbit/s using a delay-line bit
interleaver. An eye diagram of the obtained Nyquist OTDM
signal is shown in Fig. 10(b). The OTDM signal becomes
an analog-like continuous data stream, and the eye diagram
appears greatly distorted due to the interference. However, as
indicated by the blue line, no ISI occurs and a constant level
is maintained at every symbol interval. The 640 Gbit/s
© 2014 The Japan Society of Applied Physics
Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. 53, 08MA01 (2014) REVIEW PAPER

Gauss (600 fs) signal

crosstalk

10dB/div
-3
10

-4 1530 1540 1550 1560

10 Wavelength [nm]

Bit Error Rate

-5 Pol-MUX
10
-6
10
(a)
-7
10
25 -8
10
Back
-9
20 10 to
Single-pol
-10 back
10
Power [mW]

15 -32 -30 -28 -26 -24 -22 -20 -18

Received Optical Power [dBm]
10
(a)
5
Nyquist (640 Gabud)
signal
0
crosstalk

10dB/div
1.56 ps/div
-3
(b) 10

-4
Fig. 10. (Color online) The intensity profile of a 40 GHz optical Nyquist 10 1525 1535 1545 1555
pulse (a) and its OTDM to 640 Gbaud (b). Wavelength [nm]
Bit Error Rate

-5
10
Pol-MUX
Nyquist pulses were polarization multiplexed to 1.28 Tbit/s
-6
and transmitted over a 525 km dispersion-managed trans- 10
mission link. In the receiver, the transmitted Nyquist pulse 10
-7

was first demultiplexed to 40 Gbit/s. Here, unlike conven-

tional OTDM demultiplexing, we adopted an optical
sampling technique so that only data at the ISI-free point
could be extracted from the continuous data stream. As an
ultrashort optical sampler, we employed a nonlinear optical
loop mirror (NOLM) switch with a gate width of 830 fs.
Figures 11(a) and 11(b) show the BER characteristics for
1.28 Tbit/s-525 km Gaussian and Nyquist pulse transmission.
As shown in Fig. 11(a), with a Gaussian pulse, the BER for
a 1.28 Tbit/s polarization-multiplexed transmission was
greatly degraded compared with the single-polarization
result as a result of the depolarization-induced crosstalk43)
as shown in the inset of Fig. 11(a). On the other hand, the
BER degradation associated with polarization multiplexing
was much smaller with a Nyquist pulse as shown in
Fig. 11(b), and a BER of ³10¹7 was achieved after a
525 km transmission with a much lower power penalty and a
reduced error floor. These results indicate that the use of
Nyquist pulses is very promising for ultrahigh-speed trans-
mission. This scheme is scalable to a higher symbol rate per
channel of for example 1 Tbaud,10) and simultaneously
enables ultrahigh SE by employing coherent QAM.11)
3. Second “M”: Multi-core optical fiber for SDM
One of the strongest motivations for developing new fiber
technologies is the huge increase in optical power. As the
optical power reaches a certain level, serious damage called a
“fiber fuse” occurs. A fiber fuse is a phenomenon whereby a
fiber core is partially melted as a result of high optical power,
and holes propagate through the core until the optical source
08MA01-5
-8
10
Back
-9 Single-pol
10 to
back
10
-10
-32 -30 -28 -26 -24 -22 -20 -18
Received Optical Power [dBm]
(b)
Fig. 11. (Color online) BER characteristics for 640 Gbit/s single-channel
and 1.28 Tbit/s polarization-multiplexed transmissions over 525 km with
Gaussian (a) and Nyquist pulses (b). The inset shows optical spectra of signal
(red) and crosstalk components (blue) after 525 km propagation.
is shut down.19) The fiber fuse propagation threshold is
around 1 W, and it is especially disadvantageous for single-
mode fibers with small MFDs. The optical power for WDM
signals and the pump power for Raman amplification has
now reached of the order of a few Watts, which is very close
to the threshold power for fiber fuse propagation. This means
that the allowable optical power input into an optical fiber is
approaching its limit.
The basic parameters for optical fibers have remained
almost unchanged for more than 20 years, but if we are to
overcome the power limitation, a paradigm shift from single
core to multiple cores is indispensable. One of the most
important factors in multi-core design is to minimize the
crosstalk between any pair of cores. It has been found that the
crosstalk in MCF is described by coupled-power theory more
accurately than coupled-mode theory.12,13) This indicates that
the dominant factor as regards the crosstalk is stochastic
© 2014 The Japan Society of Applied Physics
Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. 53, 08MA01 (2014) REVIEW PAPER

Table I. MCFs for SDM transmission.

Number of cores 19 7 12
Core pitch (µm) 35 45 37
Cladding diameter (µm) 200 150 225
Loss (dB/km) 0.23 0.18 0.199
Aeff (µm2) 72 80 88
Crosstalk (dB/km) ¹42 ¹90 ¹55 to ¹49
Reference 16 17 18
Backscattered

Pbs1 (Input: Center core)

power

Optical pulse
Pbs2 Pbs3
0.20 dB/km
Pulse width: Δτ
Time
Fiber length
Input power: P0
3
2 4
1
MCF
Pbs1
Pbsm 7 5
6

(a) (b)

(c) (d)

Fig. 12. (Color online) Measurement of mode coupling along MCF using synchronous multi-channel OTDR. (a) Measurement principle, (b) backscattered
OTDR signals, (c) mode coupling ratio from center to outer cores, and (d) change in mode coupling coefficient as a function of position.

mode coupling along the MCF caused by longitudinal
perturbations. The crosstalk is also significantly affected by
fiber bending.14) From this perspective, heterogeneous MCF
has been proposed, which is composed of cores with different
propagation constants.15) It has also been found that even a
very small fluctuation of the structural parameters results in
crosstalk reduction. Trench-assisted MCF, which is com-
posed of cores with depressed cladding, has been proposed as
another way of suppressing crosstalk without adversely
affecting core density. Several groups have reported MCF
with ultra-low crosstalk,16–18) including a 17.4 km MCF with
crosstalk as low as ¹77.6 dB.16) The details of these MCFs
are shown in Table I. Recently, by using a low-crosstalk 12-
core MCF, a record 1.01 Pbit/s capacity has been demon-
08MA01-6
strated with the SDM of 222 WDM channels of 456 Gbit/s
PDM-32QAM signals.18)
If we can obtain the mode-coupling coefficient in the
propagation direction, we can analyze the optical power
distribution along each core, which will give us useful
knowledge about SDM transmission using MCF. Recently,
we proposed a novel technique for measuring the mode
coupling along an MCF using synchronous multi-channel
optical time domain reflectometry (OTDR).19) This technique
clarifies the nonuniformity of the mode-coupling coefficient
along the fiber caused by the structural irregularity of the
fiber. A schematic diagram of the MCF mode-coupling
measurement and the experimental results are shown in
Fig. 12. As shown in Fig. 12(a), an optical pulse is coupled
© 2014 The Japan Society of Applied Physics
Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. 53, 08MA01 (2014)
Multi-core
optical amplifier
Transmitter
Multi-core
Erbium transmission line
core
Multi-core EDF
Signal to
(MC-EDF)
each core
(a) MC-EDF for individual core
pumping scheme Multi-core coupler
Air-hole Pump (for coupling pump
to multiple cores)
Pumping
laser
(b) MC-EDF with uniform clad pumping
Fig. 13. (Color online) Multi-core amplifier and repeater system.
to the core 1, and the backscattered light in the core n, Pbsn,
is detected by multi-channel synchronous OTDR. Example
backscattered OTDR measurements from each core are
shown in Fig. 12(b), when a 1 µs optical pulse was coupled
into core 1 (center core) of a 2.9 km-long 7-core MCF with a
core pitch of 46 µm and a cladding diameter of 217 µm. The
mode coupling between core 1 and n along the fiber under a
condition of small mode coupling can be then obtained from
the power ratio between Pbs1 and Pbsn:
Pbsn
n;1 ðLÞ ¼ ¼ 2hn;1 L þ K for hn;1 L  1;
Pbs1
where hn,1 is the mode coupling coefficient between core 1
and n, L is the fiber length, and K is a constant determined
by the Fourier transformation of the autocorrelation function
of the mode-coupling coefficient.44,45) This indicates that ©n,1
is proportional to the fiber length, with the slope given by
twice the mode-coupling coefficient. Figure 12(c) shows the
power ratio ©n,1 (n = 2–7) obtained from Fig. 12(b). We can
therefore obtain the mode-coupling coefficient by using the
derivative of the power ratio, which is shown in Fig. 12(d).
These results indicate that the mode-coupling coefficient
varies with position, and there is a structural irregularity that
must be eliminated.
For long-haul SDM transmission, it is essential to develop
optical amplifiers for multi-cores20–22) as well as other active
or passive components and splicing technologies. Figure 13
shows the basic configuration of a multi-core optical
amplifier. As in conventional EDF, multiple erbium-doped
cores are used as a gain medium. The EDF is pumped either
with an individual core pumping scheme using a multi-core
coupler as shown in (a),20,21) or with uniform clad pumping
as shown in (b),22) which has been adopted in high power
fiber lasers, namely the double clad pumping scheme. In
Ref. 20 a net gain of about 30 dB was obtained for seven
cores with a crosstalk of less than ¹30 dB with individual
core pumping. With a cladding-pumped seven-core EDFA, a
gain of >15 dB, a noise figure of <5.5 dB and a crosstalk of
<¹30 dB have been achieved.22) A cladding-pumped MC-
EDFA may have a lower pump efficiency than individual
core pumping, but the power consumption is expected to be
lower because only a single multi-mode pumping source is
used. The MC-EDFA has been successfully applied to long-
REVIEW PAPER
Receiver
Triangular mirror
Amplified signal
Multi-core moni-
toring and control
Fig. 14. (Color online) Core monitoring using a triangular mirror for
MCF fusion splicing.
haul MCF transmission such as a 140.7 Tbit/s, 7326 km
seven-core transmission, demonstrating a capacity-distance
product of more than 1 Exabit/s0km.23)
As regards fusion splicing, the existing fusion splice
technology developed for polarization-maintaining fibers can
be extended to the core alignment of multiple cores using a
ð4Þ triangular mirror and side-view observation. In addition, by
swinging the electrodes, the temperature is uniform for the
inner and outer cores.24) Figure 14 shows the basic config-
uration of an MCF fusion splicer. Along with splicing, the
multi-core connector is a key element from a practical point
of view, where precise control of the central axis as well as
the axial angles will be very important. An MU-type seven-
core connector has been developed by employing Oldham’s
coupling mechanism inside the connector plug housing for
precise alignment.25)
4. Third “M”: Multi-mode control with MIMO
In addition to multi-cores, multiple modes can also offer
additional spatial degrees of freedom and are expected to
offer another potential way of overcoming the capacity
limitation. In particular, MIMO technology, which was
originally developed in wireless communications to cope
with multi-path interference, is expected to be a key ele-
ment for realizing mode multiplexing and demultiplexing
capable of handling inter-modal crosstalk and differential
group delay.
In the field of wireless communications, MIMO technol-
ogies have been developed for high-speed transmission.46) In
a wireless system, a signal is transmitted through multiple
paths between multiple antennas at the transmitter and
receiver. By representing multiple paths as channel matrix H,
the receiver can separate the channels based on signal
processing. It is important to incorporate such technologies
from the viewpoint of mode division multiplexing using
multi-modes.
The MIMO technique was first applied to optical
communication for polarization demultiplexing, which en-
ables the separation of two orthogonal polarizations at the
08MA01-7 © 2014 The Japan Society of Applied Physics
Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. 53, 08MA01 (2014) REVIEW PAPER

Mode 1
Tx 1 Rx 1

Tx 2 Rx 2

Tx M Mode 2 Mode k
Rx N

Fig. 15. (Color online) Mode-division-multiplexed transmission using

MIMO.

receiver without any manual adjustment of the polarization (a)

axis.47) Recently, a number of studies have reported the
application of MIMO to mode-division-multiplexed trans-
mission. MIMO-based multi-mode transmission is shown
schematically in Fig. 15. For a single input signal x(t), the
received signal y(t) is represented by
X
Q
yðtÞ ¼ hk xðtÞ þ nðtÞ ð5Þ
k¼1
where n(t) is noise and Q is the number of modes. The first
term has Q contributions representing the distortion in a
certain mode k. The distortion includes the loss, group delay, (b)
and coupling ratio with mode k. By extending this repre-
sentation to multiple inputs and outputs, the received signal at
the ith receiver is given by
M X
X Q X
M
yi ðtÞ ¼ hijk xj ðtÞ þ ni ðtÞ ¼ Hij xj ðtÞ þ ni ðtÞ;
j¼1 k¼1 j¼1

i ¼ 1; . . . ; N
where hijk is the distortion when the signal is transmitted from
the jth transmitter to the ith receiver via mode k, which is
estimated from the input and received training symbols.
Equation (6) can be represented in a matrix form:
yðtÞ ¼ HxðtÞ þ nðtÞ:
By estimating the channel matrix H from x(t) and y(t) using
signal processing, and multiplying the inverse matrix of H,
we can recover the input signal x(t). In general, to avoid
increasing the noise term through the multiplication of H¹1
by n(t), we diagonalize H in the form D = V †HU using
unitary matrices U and V. Then, x(t) can be obtained by
receiving y(t) by multiplying U and V † by x and y
respectively as follows:
V y yðtÞ ¼ V y HðUxðtÞÞ þ V y n ¼ Dx þ V y n:
Each component of x(t) can be extracted by dividing the
right-hand side of Eq. (8) with diagonal components of D. It
should be noted here that the noise increase does not occur in
the term V †n, as the magnitude of this term is «V †n« = «n« due
to the property of a unitary matrix.
Several groups have demonstrated MIMO-based multi-
mode transmission over a few-mode fiber using fundamental
and higher-order LP modes. Figure 16 shows examples of
mode multiplexers and demultiplexers. Higher-order modes
are excited and separated using free-space optics with phase
plates for phase inversion [Fig. 16(a)],26) long-period fiber
Bragg gratings for fundamental to higher-order mode con-
version [Fig. 16(b)],27) or a liquid crystal on silicon (LCOS)-
type spatial intensity and phase modulator for beam profiling
[Fig. 16(c)].28) Recent demonstrations of mode-division-
ð6Þ
ð7Þ
(c)
Fig. 16. (Color online) Mode multiplexers and demultiplexers for mode-
division-multiplexed transmission.
multiplexed transmission are summarized in Table II.29–33)
For example, the 5-mode transmission of 100 Gbit/s PDM-
ð8Þ
QPSK signals has been realized using the LP01, LP11a, LP11b,
LP21a, and LP21b modes by using 4 © 4 MIMO (used to
separate degenerate modes, e.g., LP11a, x, LP11a, y, LP11b,x , and
LP11b, y).31) A 6-mode transmission including the LP02 mode
has also been achieved with 12 © 12 MIMO.33) These reports
potentially demonstrate the capability of spatial and polar-
ization mode discrimination with MIMO.
5. Conclusions
We reviewed recent progress on the 3M scheme, which
consists of multi-level modulation, multi-core fibers, and
multi-mode technologies. These innovative technologies are
expected to overcome the power and capacity limitations of
today’s optical communication, and ultimately lead to a
thousand-fold giant leap toward the Exabit optical commu-
nication infrastructure in the coming 20 to 30 years.
08MA01-8 © 2014 The Japan Society of Applied Physics
Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. 53, 08MA01 (2014) REVIEW PAPER

Table II. Recent mode-division-multiplexed transmission experiments.

Modes Modulation Distance Mux/Demux MIMO Ref.
LP01, LP11a, LP11b, Pol-Mux 20 Gbaud QPSK 1200 km FMF (DGD comp.) Phase plates 6 © 6 MIMO 29
LP01, LP11a, LP11b, Pol-Mux 28 Gbaud QPSK © 88 WDM 50 km FMF + FM-EDFA Phase plates 6 © 6 MIMO 30
LP01, LP11a, LP11b, LP21a, LP21b 28 Gbaud QPSK 40 km FMF (Low mode coupling) Phase plates 4 © 4 MIMO 31
LP01, LP11a, LP11b, Pol-Mux 32 Gbaud 16 QAM © 96 WDM 119 km FMF Phase plates 6 © 6 MIMO 32
LP01, LP11, LP21, LP02, Pol-Mux 20 Gbaud 16 QAM © 32 WDM 177 km FMF Waveguide 12 © 12 MIMO 33

1) Optical Fiber Telecommunications VIA and B, ed. I. Kaminow, T. Li, and A.
Willner (Academic Press, New York, 2013).
2) R. Kashyap and K. J. Blow, Electron. Lett. 24, 47 (1988).
3) M. Nakazawa, European Conf. Optical Communication (ECOC 2010),
Plenary Talk.
4) Y. Koizumi, K. Toyoda, M. Yoshida, and M. Nakazawa, Opt. Express 20,
12508 (2012).
5) C. Zhang, Y. Mori, M. Usui, K. Igarashi, K. Katoh, and K. Kikuchi, Proc.
European Conference on Optical Communication (ECOC 2009), PD2.8.
6) K. Kasai, T. Omiya, P. Guan, M. Yoshida, T. Hirooka, and M. Nakazawa,
IEEE Photonics Technol. Lett. 22, 562 (2010).
7) T. Richter, E. Palushani, C. Schmidt-Langhorst, M. Nölle, R. Ludwig, J. K.
Fischer, and C. Schubert, Proc. Optical Fiber Communication Conf. (OFC
2011), PDPA9.
8) M. Nakazawa, T. Hirooka, P. Ruan, and P. Guan, Opt. Express 20, 1129
(2012).
9) K. Harako, D. Seya, T. Hirooka, and M. Nakazawa, Opt. Express 21, 21063
(2013).
10) H. Hu, D. Kong, E. Palushani, J. D. Andersen, A. Rasmussen, B. M.
Sørensen, M. Galili, H. C. H. Mulvad, K. J. Larsen, S. Forchhammer, P.
Jeppesen, and L. K. Oxenløwe, Proc. Conf. Lasers and Electro-Optics
(CLEO 2013), CTh5D.5.
11) D. O. Otuya, K. Kasai, T. Hirooka, M. Yoshida, and M. Nakazawa, Proc.
Optical Fiber Communication Conf. (OFC 2014), W1A.4.
12) J. M. Fini, B. Zhu, T. Taunay, M. Yan, and K. Abedin, Proc. European Conf.
Optical Communication (ECOC 2011), Mo.1.LeCervin.4.
13) M. Koshiba, K. Saitoh, K. Takenaga, and S. Matsuo, Proc. European Conf.
Optical Communication (ECOC 2011), Mo.1.LeCervin.5.
14) T. Hayashi, T. Sasaki, E. Sasaoka, K. Saitoh, and M. Koshiba, Proc.
European Conf. Optical Communication (ECOC 2010), We.8.F.6.
15) M. Koshiba, K. Saitoh, and Y. Kokubun, IEICE Electron. Express 6, 98
(2009).
16) J. Sakaguchi, B. J. Puttnam, W. Klaus, Y. Awaji, N. Wada, A. Kanno, T.
Kawanishi, K. Imamura, H. Inaba, K. Mukasa, R. Sugizaki, T. Kobayashi,
and M. Watanabe, Proc. Optical Fiber Communication Conf. (OFC 2012),
PDP5C.1.
17) T. Hayashi, T. Taru, O. Shimakawa, T. Sasaki, and E. Sasaoka, Proc. Optical
Fiber Communication Conf. (OFC 2011), PDPC2.
18) H. Takara, A. Sano, T. Kobayashi, H. Kawakami, A. Matusuura, Y.
Miyamoto, Y. Abe, H. Ono, K. Shikama, Y. Goto, K. Tujikawa, Y. Sasaki,
I. Ishida, K. Takenaga, S. Matusi, K. Saitoh, M. Koshiba, and T. Morioka,
Proc. European Conf. Optical Communication (ECOC 2012), Th.3.C.1.
19) M. Nakazawa, M. Yoshida, and T. Hirooka, Opt. Express 20, 12530 (2012).
20) K. S. Abedin, T. F. Taunay, M. Fishteyn, M. F. Yan, B. Zhu, J. M. Fini,
E. M. Monberg, F. V. Dimarcello, and P. W. Wisk, Opt. Express 19, 16715
(2011).
21) Y. Tsuchida, K. Maeda, K. Watanbe, T. Saito, S. Matsumoto, K. Aiso, Y.
Mimura, and R. Sugizaki, Proc. European Conf. Optical Communication
(ECOC 2012), Tu.4.F.2.
22) Y. Mimura, Y. Tsuchida, K. Maeda, R. Miyabe, K. Aiso, H. Matsuura, and
R. Sugizaki, Proc. European Conf. Optical Communication (ECOC 2012),
Tu.4.F.1.
23) K. Igarashi, T. Tsuritani, I. Morita, Y. Tsuchida, K. Maeda, M. Tadakuma, T.
Saito, K. Watanabe, K. Imamura, R. Sugizaki, and M. Suzuki, Proc.
European Conf. Optical Communication (ECOC 2013), PD3.E.3.
24) K. Yoshida, A. Takahashi, T. Konuma, K. Yoshida, and K. Sasaki, Fujikura
Tech. Rev. 41, 10 (2012).
25) R. Nagase, K. Sakaime, K. Watanabe, and T. Saito, IEICE Trans. Electron.
E96-C, 1173 (2013).
26) S. Randel, R. Ryf, A. Sierra, P. J. Winzer, A. H. Gnauck, C. A. Bolle, R. J.
Essiambre, D. W. Peckham, A. McCurdy, and R. Lingle, Opt. Express 19,
16697 (2011).
27) N. Hanzawa, K. Saitoh, T. Sakamoto, T. Matsui, S. Tomita, and M.
Koshiba, Proc. Optical Fiber Communication Conf. (OFC 2011), OWA4.
28) C. Koebele, M. Salsi, D. Sperti, P. Tran, P. Brindel, H. Mardoyan, S. Bigo,
A. Boutin, F. Verluise, P. Sillard, M. Astruc, L. Provost, F. Cerou, and G.
Charlet, Opt. Express 19, 16593 (2011).
29) S. Randel, R. Ryf, A. Gnauck, M. A. Mestre, C. Schmidt, R. Essiambre, P.
Winzer, R. Delbue, P. Pupalaikis, A. Sureka, Y. Sun, X. Jiang, and R.
Lingle, Prof. Optical Fiber Communication Conf. (OFC 2012), PDP5C.5.
30) E. Ip, N. Bai, Y. Huang, E. Mateo, F. Yaman, S. Bickham, H. Tam, C. Lu,
M. Li, S. Ten, A. P. T. Lau, V. Tse, G. Peng, C. Montero, X. Prieto, and
G. Li, Proc. European Conf. Optical Communication (ECOC 2011),
Th.13.C.2.
31) C. Koebele, M. Salsi, L. Milord, R. Ryf, C. A. Bolle, P. Sillard, S. Bigo, and
G. Charlet, Proc. European Conf. Optical Communication (ECOC 2011),
Th.13.C.3.
32) V. A. J. M. Sleiffer, Y. Jung, V. Veljanovski, R. G. H. van Uden, M.
Kuschnerov, Q. Kang, L. Grüner-Nielsen, Y. Sun, D. J. Richardson, S.
Alam, F. Poletti, J. K. Sahu, A. Dhar, H. Chen, B. Inan, A. M. J. Koonen,
B. Corbett, R. Winfield, A. D. Ellis, and H. de Waardt, Proc. European
Conf. Optical Communication (ECOC 2012), Th.3.C.4.
33) R. Ryf, S. Randel, N. K. Fontaine, M. Montoliu, E. Burrows, S.
Chandrasekhar, A. H. Gnauck, C. Xie, R. Essiambre, P. Winzer, R. Delbue,
P. Pupalaikis, A. Sureka, Y. Sun, L. Gruner-Nielsen, R. V. Jensen, and R.
Lingle, Proc. Optical Fiber Communication Conf. (OFC 2013), PDP5A.1.
34) T. Mizuochi, IEICE Trans. Commun. E88-B, 1934 (2005).
35) C. E. Shannon, Bell Syst. Tech. J. 27, 379 (1948).
36) C. E. Shannon, Bell Syst. Tech. J. 27, 623 (1948).
37) K. Kasai, A. Suzuki, M. Yoshida, and M. Nakazawa, IEICE Electron.
Express 3, 487 (2006).
38) H. Nyquist, Trans. AIEE 47, 617 (1928).
39) M. V. Clark, IEEE J. Sel. Areas Commun. 16, 1385 (1998).
40) C. Paré, A. Villeneuve, P.-A. Bélanger, and N. J. Doran, Opt. Lett. 21, 459
(1996).
41) P. K. A. Wai, C. R. Menyuk, and H. H. Chen, Opt. Lett. 16, 1231 (1991).
42) G. Baxter, S. Frisken, D. Abakoumov, H. Zhou, I. Clarke, A. Bartos, and S.
Poole, Proc. Optical Fiber Communication Conf. (OFC 2006), OTuF2.
43) T. Hirooka, K. Harako, P. Guan, and M. Nakazawa, J. Lightwave Technol.
31, 809 (2013).
44) M. Nakazawa, N. Shibata, M. Tokuda, and Y. Negishi, J. Opt. Soc. Am. A
1, 285 (1984).
45) M. Nakazawa, J. Opt. Soc. Am. 73, 1175 (1983).
46) J. H. Winters, IEEE J. Sel. Areas Commun. 5, 871 (1987).
47) S. L. Jansen, I. Morita, and H. Tanaka, Proc. European Conf. Optical
Communication (ECOC 2007), PD1.3.

08MA01-9 © 2014 The Japan Society of Applied Physics