All-fiber optical mode switching based on cascaded mode selective couplers for short-reach MDM networks

Fang Ren; Juhao Li; Zhongying Wu; Jinyi Yu; Qi Mo; Jianping Wang; Yongqi He; Zhangyuan Chen; Zhengbin Li

doi:10.1117/1.OE.56.4.046104

11 April 2017 All-fiber optical mode switching based on cascaded mode selective couplers for short-reach MDM networks

Fang Ren, Juhao Li, Zhongying Wu, Jinyi Yu, Qi Mo, Jianping Wang, Yongqi He, Zhangyuan Chen, Zhengbin Li

Author Affiliations +

Optical Engineering, Vol. 56, Issue 4, 046104 (April 2017). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.OE.56.4.046104

Abstract

We propose and experimentally demonstrate an all-fiber optical mode switching structure supporting independent switching, exchanging, adding, and dropping functionalities in which each mode can be switched individually. The mode switching structure consists of cascaded mode selective couplers (MSCs) capable of exciting and selecting specific higher order modes in few-mode fibers with high efficiency and one multiport optical switch routing the independent spatial modes to their destinations. The data carried on three different spatial modes can be switched, exchanged, added, and dropped through this all-fiber structure. For this experimental demonstration, optical on-off-keying (OOK) signals at 10-Gb/s carried on three spatial modes are successfully processed with open and clear eye diagrams. The mode switch exhibits power penalties of less than 3.1 dB after through operation, less than 2.7 dB after exchange operation, less than 2.8 dB after switching operation, and less than 1.6 dB after mode adding and dropping operations at the bit-error rate (BER) of 10−3, while all three channels carried on three spatial modes are simultaneously routed. The proposed structure, compatible with current optical switching networks based on single-mode fibers, can potentially be used to expand the switching scalability in advanced and flexible short-reach mode-division multiplexing-based networks.

Citation Download Citation

Fang Ren, Juhao Li, Zhongying Wu, Jinyi Yu, Qi Mo, Jianping Wang, Yongqi He, Zhangyuan Chen, and Zhengbin Li "All-fiber optical mode switching based on cascaded mode selective couplers for short-reach MDM networks," Optical Engineering 56(4), 046104 (11 April 2017). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.OE.56.4.046104

Received: 23 December 2016; Accepted: 24 March 2017; Published: 11 April 2017

ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE

INSTITUTIONAL
Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.

SELECT YOUR INSTITUTION

PERSONAL
Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.

PERSONAL SIGN IN

No SPIE Account? Create one

PURCHASE THIS CONTENT

SUBSCRIBE TO DIGITAL LIBRARY

50 downloads per 1-year subscription

Members: $195

Non-members: $335 ADD TO CART

25 downloads per 1 - year subscription

Members: $145

Non-members: $250 ADD TO CART

PURCHASE SINGLE ARTICLE

Includes PDF, HTML & Video, when available