We report simultaneous transmission of six spatial and polarization modes, each carrying 40 Gb/s quadrature-phase-shift-keyed channels over 96 km of a low-differential group delay few-mode fiber. The channels are successfully recovered by offline DSP based on coherent detection and multiple-input multiple-output processing. A penalty of ;28 dB.

Mode-Division Multiplexing Over 96 km of Few-Mode Fiber Using Coherent 6 $\,\times\,$ 6 MIMO Processing

Fiber-optic communication systems form the high-capacity transport infrastructure that enables global broadband data services and advanced Internet applications. The desire for higher per-fiber transport capacities and, at the same time, the drive for lower costs per end-to-end transmitted information bit has led to optically routed networks with high spectral efficiencies. Among other enabling technologies, advanced optical modulation formats have become key to the design of modern wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) fiber systems. In this paper, we review optical modulation formats in the broader context of optically routed WDM networks. We discuss the generation and detection of multigigabit/s intensity- and phase-modulated formats, and highlight their resilience to key impairments found in optical networking, such as optical amplifier noise, multipath interference, chromatic dispersion, polarization-mode dispersion, WDM crosstalk, concatenated optical filtering, and fiber nonlinearity

Advanced Optical Modulation Formats

Fiber-optic biosensors (FOBS) are optical fiber-derived devices which use optical field to measure biological species such as cells, proteins, and DNA. Because of their efficiency, accuracy, low cost, and convenience, FOBS are promising alternatives to traditional immunological methods for biomolecule measurements. Tapered fiber-optic biosensors (TFOBS) are a type of FOBS which rely on special geometries to expose the evanescent field to interact with samples. In order to amplify sensitivity and selectivity, TFOBS are often used with various optical transduction mechanisms such as changes in refractive index, absorption, fluorescence, and Surface Plasmon Resonance. In this review, the basic principles of TFOBS are summarized. Various common geometries for evanescent sensing and the influence of geometric parameters on optical principles are reviewed. Finally, a detailed account of the studies done to date for biomolecules detection using TFOBS will be provided. © 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A review of fiber-optic biosensors

Hybrid fiber-wireless networks incorporating WDM technology for fixed wireless access operating in the sub-millimeter-wave and millimeter-wave (mm-wave) frequency regions are being actively pursued to provide untethered connectivity for ultrahigh bandwidth communications. The architecture of such radio networks requires a large number of antenna base-stations with high throughput to be deployed to maximize the geographical coverage with the main switching and routing functionalities located in a centralized location. The transportation of mm-wave wireless signals within the hybrid network is subject to several impairments including low opto-electronic conversion efficiency, fiber chromatic dispersion and also degradation due to nonlinearities along the link. One of the major technical challenges in implementing such networks lies in the mitigation of these various optical impairments that the wireless signals experience within the hybrid network. In this paper, we present an overview of different techniques to optically transport mm-wave wireless signals and to overcome impairments associated with the transport of the wireless signals. We also review the different designs of subsystems for integrating fiber-wireless technology onto existing optical infrastructure.

Fiber-Wireless Networks and Subsystem Technologies

Since the first deployments of fiber-optic com- munication systems three decades ago, the capacity carried by a single-mode optical fiber has increased by a staggering 10 000 times. Most of the growth occurred in the first two decades with growth slowing to ten times in the last decade. Over the same three decades, network traffic has increased by a much smaller factor of 100, but with most of the growth occurring in the last few years, when data started dominating network traffic. At the current growth rate, the next factor of 100 in network traffic growth will occur within a decade. The large difference in growth rates between the delivered fiber capacity and the traffic demand is expected to create a capacity shortage within a decade. The first part of the paper recounts the history of traffic and capacity growth and extrapolations for the future. The second part looks into the technological chal- lenges of growing the capacity of single-mode fibers by pre- senting a capacity limit estimate of standard and advanced single-mode optical fibers. The third part presents elementary capacity considerations for transmission over multiple trans- mission modes and how it compares to a single-mode trans- mission. Finally, the last part of the paper discusses fibers supporting multiple spatial modes, including multimode and multicore fibers, and the role of digital processing techniques. Spatial multiplexing in fibers is expected to enable system capacity growth to match traffic growth in the next decades.

https://www.icg.isy.liu.se/courses/optical/Capacity_Trends.pdf

Capacity Trends and Limits of Optical Communication Networks Discussed in this paper are: optical communication network traffic evolution trends, required capacity and challenges to reaching it, and basic limits to capacity.

Preface.Introduction.Chapter 1. Selected Topics in Electromagnetic Wave Propagation.1.1. Maxwell's Equations and the Fundamental Fields.1.2. Electromagnetic Wave Propagation in Sourceless Media.1.3. Power Transmission.1.4. Group Velocity.1.5. Reflection and Transmission of Waves at Plane Interfaces.1.6. Material Resonances and Their Effects on Wave Propagation.Problems.References.Chapter 2. Symmetric Dielectric Slab Waveguides.2.1. Ray Analysis of the Slab Waveguides.2.2. Field Analysis of the Slab Waveguides.2.3. Solutions of the Eigenvalue Equations.2.4. Power Transmission and Confinement.2.5. Leaky Waves.2.6. Radiation Modes.2.7. Wave Propagation in Curved Slab Waveguides.Problems.References.Chapter 3. Weakly-Guiding Fibers with Step Index Profiles.3.1. Rays and Fields in the Step Index Fiber.3.2. Field Analysis of the Weakly-Guiding Fiber.3.3. Eigenvalue Equation for LP Modes.3.4. LP Mode Characteristics.3.5. Single Mode Fiber Parameters.3.6. Derivation of the General Step Index Fiber Modes.Problems.References.Chapter 4. Loss Mechanisms in Silica Fiber.4.1. Basic Loss Effects in Transmission.4.2. Fabrication of Silica Fibers.4.3. Intrinsic Loss.4.4. Extrinsic Loss.4.5. Bending Loss.4.6. Source-to-Fiber Coupling.Problems.References.Chapter 5. Dispersion.5.1. Pulse Propagation in Media Possessing Quadratic Dispersion.5.2. Material Dispersion.5.3. Dispersion in Optical Fiber.5.4. Chromatic Dispersion Compensation.5.5. Polarization Dispersion.5.6. System Considerations and Dispersion Measurement.Problems.References.Chapter 6. Special Purpose Index Profiles.6.1. Multimode Graded Index Fiber.6.2. Special Index Profile Optimization.Problems.References.Chapter 7. Nonlinear Effects in Fibers I: Non-Resonant Processes.7.1. Nonlinear Optics Fundamentals.7.2. Nonlinear Phase Modulation on Pulses.7.3. The Nonlinear Schrodinger Equation.7.4. Additional Non-Resonant Processes.Problems.References.Chapter 8. Nonlinear Effects in Fibers II: Resonant Processes and Amplification.8.1. Raman Scattering.8.2. Stimulated Brillouin Scattering.8.3. Rare-Earth-Doped Fiber Amplifiers.Problems.References.Appendix A: Properties of Bessel Functions.Appendix B: Notation.Index.

Fundamentals of optical fibers

We demonstrate near-transform-limited pulse generation through spectral compression arising from nonlinear propagation of negatively chirped pulses in optical fiber. The output pulse intensity and phase were quantified by use of second-harmonic generation frequency-resolved optical gating. Spectral compression from 8.4 to 2.4 nm was obtained. Furthermore, the phase of the spectrally compressed pulse was found to be constant over the spectral and temporal envelopes, which is indicative of a transform-limited pulse. Good agreement was found between the experimental results and numerical pulse-propagation studies.

/pdf/transform-limited-spectral-compression-due-to-self-phase-1gtuo2zdno.pdf

Transform-limited spectral compression due to self-phase modulation in fibers.

We designed and experimentally demonstrated an efficient photonic frequency-tripling technology for 60-GHz radio-over-fiber systems to simultaneously realize millimeter-wave (mm-wave), microwave, and baseband signal generation. The technique utilizes vestigial sideband filtering in combination with optical carrier suppression to generate novel alternate subcarrier modulation for high tolerance of fiber dispersion. Experimental verification of the proposed scheme is presented with generation and error-free transmission of 2.1-Gb/s data on the 63-GHz mm-wave and 21-GHz microwave carriers over 50-km single-mode fiber (SMF-28) without dispersion compensation. The power penalty for both signals is less than 1.0 dB.

Multiband Signal Generation and Dispersion-Tolerant Transmission Based on Photonic Frequency Tripling Technology for 60-GHz Radio-Over-Fiber Systems

The decay of higher-order solitons in optical fiber, initiated by a step change in dispersion or by a localized loss element or filter, is explored theoretically as a means of generating pairs of pulses with wavelengths that are upshifted and downshifted from the input wavelength. One can tune the wavelengths by varying the magnitude of the perturbation. Pulse parameter requirements for achieving useful wavelength shifts while avoiding unwanted nonlinear effects are presented. Additionally, conditions are described under which the separated pulses can be recombined at a distant location to restore the higher-order soliton at the original wavelength.

John A. Buck

Papers

Fundamentals of optical fibers

Fundamentals of optical fibers

Transform-limited spectral compression due to self-phase modulation in fibers.

Multiband Signal Generation and Dispersion-Tolerant Transmission Based on Photonic Frequency Tripling Technology for 60-GHz Radio-Over-Fiber Systems

Wavelength conversion through higher-order soliton splitting initiated by localized channel perturbations