Abstract: 
The fate of the commercial deployment of space-division multiplexing (SDM) fibers depends primarily on the cost per transported bit of information for the anticipated data traffic demand in future optical networks and the transmission performance of SDM fibers relative to single-mode fibers. The most important elements impacting the introduction of SDM fibrs in optical networks are: 1) the ratio of the average traffic demand to the nonlinear Shannon limit of single-mode fibers, 2) the cost of SDM transponders, amplifiers and optical add-drop multiplexers and 3) the transmission performance of commercially-deployable SDM fibers.

Many different flavours of SDM fibers are considered for future backbone optical networks. One can classify SDM fibers in three broad types: 1) multimode-based fibers, including few-mode fibers, 2) multicore fibers that suppress linear crosstalk between cores, and 3) coupled-core multicore fibers designed with strong linear coupling to reduce linear and nonlinear impairments. An important practical difference between SDM fibers of types 2 and 3 is that type 2 fibers only require real-time multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) processing on each individual core while type 3 requires processing of all cores/modes simultaneously. Currently, type 1 SDM fibers require at a minimum processing of all modes belonging to the same mode groups, for each mode group.

A very important characteristic of SDM fibers that may determine which SDM fiber may emerge in commercial systems to replace single-mode fibers are the nonlinear transmission performance of these SDM fibers in the high-capacity regime relative to arrays of single-mode fibers. The nonlinear performance of these fibers remains a very active area of research and the workshop is intended to share the latest results, predictions, intuitions and convictions on “What is the best SDM fiber?”

What is the Best Fiber for the Deployment of Space-Division Multiplexing Systems?

List of speakers:

Part 1: Historical Perspective and Space-Division Multiplexing (SDM) Fibers

Andrew Chraplyvy and Bob Tkach, Bell Labs – Nokia, USA
“Topic: Historical perspective on introducing new optical fibers in optical networks”

Neal Bergano, TE Subcom, USA
“Topic: Introducing new optical fibers in submarine networks”

Part 2: SDM Fibers

Tetsuya Hayashi, Sumitomo Electric Industries, Ltd., Japan
“Topic: Coupled-core multicore transmission fibers”

Pierre Sillard, Prysmian, France
“Topic: Multimode fibers”

Taiji Sakamoto, NTT, Japan
“Topic: Multicore and multimode fibers”

Ming-Jun Li, Corning, USA
“Topic: Fabrication of SDM fibers”

Lars Grüner-Nielsen, Danish Optical Fiber Innovation, Denmark
“Topic: Few-mode transmission fibers”

Part 3: SDM Systems

Yutaka Miyamoto, NTT, Japan
“Topic: Wish list for SDM systems”

Roland Ryf, Bell Labs – Nokia, USA
“Topic: SDM transmission in coupled-core multicore and multimode fibers”

Ben Puttnam, NICT, Japan
“Topic: SDM transmission in multicore fibers”

Koji Igarashi, Osaka University, Japan
“Topic: SDM transmission experiments”

Part 4: SDM Subsystems

Nick Fontaine Bell Labs – Nokia, USA
“Topic: SDM switches and ROADM”

Ryo Nagase, Chiba Institute of Technology, Japan
“Topic: Multicore fibre connectors”

Ezra Ip, NEC Labs, USA
“Topic: SDM amplifiers technologies and SDM transmission”

Rodrigo Amezcua Correa, Univ. Central Florida, USA
“Topic: SDM fibers and amplifiers”

Yongmin Jung, University of Southampton, U.K.
“Topic: SDM optical amplifiers”

Haoshuo Chen, Bell Labs – Nokia, USA
“Topic: SDM optical amplifiers”