Spatial division multiplexing in limited power optical communication systems

摘要

This spatial division multiplexing (SDM) in power-limited optical communication systems. In general, an SDM optical transmission system may be configured to increase data capacity over the data capacity of a non-SDM optical transmission system while maintaining power consumption at or below that of the existing non-SDM optical transmission system. To realize such an improvement in performance without increasing power consumption, an example SDM optical transmission may be constructed by reducing system bandwidth, reducing and/or altering equipment for filtering, reducing optical amplifier spacing, reducing operational amplifier power consumption, etc. In this manner, increased data transmission performance may be realized even where available power may be strictly limited.

主权项

1. A method for constructing a space division-multiplexing (SDM) optical transmission system, the method comprising:
setting the SDM optical transmission system to have a system bandwidth of 30 nm or less, including at least two wavelengths, the system bandwidth being the range of wavelengths that may be transmitted on the SDM optical transmission system; setting a number of spatial dimensions for the SDM optical transmission system depending on the system bandwidth, the number of spatial dimensions being two or more; providing an optical cable having the number of spatial dimensions; providing a spatial multiplexer configured to multiplex modulated optical signals on the number of spatial dimensions; providing a plurality of optical amplifiers, each of the optical amplifiers being configured for amplifying the plurality number of spatial dimensions; providing a spatial demultiplexer; and coupling the spatial multiplexer, the plurality of optical amplifiers and the spatial demultiplexer to the optical cable.