MIMOptics: Multi-mode coherent fiber-optical communications

Research Project, 2014 – 2017

Optical coherent communication has led to a significant increase in throughput and with the introduction of multilevel signalling and polarization multiplexing, a spectral efficiency in the order of multiple bits per second per Hertz is achievable. However, as the user demand for high-speed communication is ever increasing, new ways to increase throughput are needed. In wireless communication, multiple input, multiple output (MIMO) systems were introduced 20 years ago and this has had a major impact. In optical systems, the analogue is multi-mode fiber, where data streams are multiplexed over multiple fiber modes. This creates parallel channels and can increase throughput significantly. Coherent multi-mode communication has only recently gained attention and many aspects are far from completely described. Examples of this include channel models, which must be adapted to allow optimization, and channel capacity, which is unknown. Furthermore, no attempt has been made to tailor transmission schemes and receiver algorithms to multi-mode communication. Thus, there is an array of opportunities for frontier research in this developing area.