WDM/SDM transmission of 10 x 128-Gb/s PDM-

QPSK over 2688-km 7-core fiber with a per-fiber

net aggregate spectral-efficiency distance
product of 40,320 km b/s/Hz
S. Chandrasekhar,
1,*
A. H. Gnauck,
1
Xiang Liu,
1
P. J. Winzer,
1
Y. Pan,
1
E. C. Burrows,
1

T.F. Taunay,
2
B. Zhu,
2
M. Fishteyn,
2
M. F. Yan,
2
J. M. Fini,
2
E.M. Monberg,
2
and F.V.
Dimarcello
2

1
Bell Labs, Alcatel-Lucent, 791 Holmdel-Keyport Road, Holmdel, NJ 07733, USA
2
OFS Labs, 19 Schoolhouse Rd, Somerset NJ, 08873, USA
*
Chandra.Sethumadhavan@alcatel-lucent.com
Abstract: We demonstrate 2688-km multi-span transmission using
wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) of ten 50-GHz spaced 128-Gb/s
PDM-QPSK signals, space-division multiplexed (SDM) in a low-crosstalk
76.8-km seven-core fiber, achieving a record net aggregate per-fiber-
spectral-efficiency-distance product of 40,320 kmb/s/Hz. The
demonstration was enabled by a novel core-to-core signal rotation scheme
implemented in a 7-fold, synchronized recirculating loop apparatus.
2012 Optical Society of America
OCIS codes: (060.2330) Fiber optics communications; (060.2360) Fiber optics links and
subsystems; (060.1660) Coherent communications.
References and links
1. J. Sakaguchi, Y. Awaji, N. Wada, A. Kanno, T. Kawanishi, T. Hayashi, T. Taru, T. Kobayashi, and M.
Watanabe, 109-Tb/s (7x97x172-Gb/s) SDM/WDM/PDM) QPSK transmission through 16.8-km
homogeneous multicore fiber, OFC11, PDPB6.
2. B. Zhu, T.F. Taunay, M. Fishteyn, X. Liu, S. Chandrasekhar, M. F. Yan, J. M. Fini, E.M. Monberg, F.V.
Dimarcello, K. Abedin, P.W. Wisk D.W. Peckham, and P. Dziedzic, Space-, wavelength-, polarization-
division multiplexed transmission of 56-Tb/s over a 76.8-km seven-core fiber, OFC11, PDPB7.
3. B. Zhu, T. F. Taunay, M. Fishteyn, X. Liu, S. Chandrasekhar, M. F. Yan, J. M. Fini, E. M. Monberg, and F.
V. Dimarcello, 112-Tb/s space-division multiplexed DWDM transmission with 14-b/sHz aggregate
spectral efficiency over a 76.8-km multicore Fiber, Opt. Express 19, 1666516671 (2011).
4. R. W. Tkach, Scaling optical communications for the next decade and beyond, Bell Labs. Tech. J. 14(4),
39 (2010).
5. B. Zhu, T. F. Taunay, M. F. Yan, J. M. Fini, M. Fishteyn, E. M. Monberg, and F. V. Dimarcello, Seven-
core multicore fiber transmission for optical data links, Opt. Express 18(11), 1111711122 (2010).
6. S. Chandrasekhar, A. H. Gnauck, X. Liu, P. J. Winzer, Y. Pan, E. C. Burrows, B. Zhu, T.F. Taunay, M.
Fishteyn, M. F. Yan, J. M. Fini, E.M. Monberg, and F.V. Dimarcello, WDM/SDM transmission of 10 x
128-Gb/s PDM-QPSK over 2688-km 7-core fiber with a per-fiber net aggregate spectral-efficiency distance
product of 40,320 kmb/s/Hz, ECOC'11, paper Th.13.C4.
7. S. J. Savory, Digital coherent optical receivers: Algorithms and subsystems, IEEE J. Sel. Top. Quantum
Electron. 16(5), 11641179 (2010).
8. F. Chang, Application aspects of enhanced HD-FEC for 40/100G systems, ECOC10, workshop talk
WS116. See also http://www.vitesse.com/products/download.php?fid=4424&number=VSC9804.
1. Introduction
Space-division-multiplexing (SDM) in multi-core fiber (MCF) has recently been
demonstrated [13] to have the potential to dramatically increase the achievable spectral
efficiency (SE) as well as the capacity of a single fiber for sustaining the capacity growth [4]
of future optical transport systems. MCFs with seven uncoupled cores in a single glass fiber
were the key enabler in demonstrating capacities of 109 Tb/s and 112 Tb/s by combining
SDM with polarization division multiplexing (PDM) and dense wavelength division
multiplexing (DWDM). However, transmission distances were limited to a single pass
#158087 - $15.00 USD Received 14 Nov 2011; accepted 12 Dec 2011; published 3 Jan 2012
(C) 2012 OSA 16 January 2012 / Vol. 20, No. 2 / OPTICS EXPRESS 706
through the MCF, with a reach of 16.8 km in Ref [1]. and 76.8 km in Ref [2]. It is important
to extend the transmission distance by using multi-span transmission to explore the potential
of MCF-based SDM for practical long-haul applications. Multi-core optical coupling
technology is crucial for concatenating several MCF spans. Since multi-core optical
amplifiers for use in transmission systems are not yet available, tapered multi-core couplers
(TMCs) [5] with low loss and low-crosstalk open the opportunity to perform multi-span
transmission experiments based on multiple single-core amplifiers. We recently leveraged
advances in MCF development, i.e., the suppression of core-to-core crosstalk through
improved fiber design, to demonstrate a record aggregate per-fiber spectral efficiency (SE)
distance product [6]. Two new techniques were used to enable this demonstration. First, an
apparatus that consists of seven separate re-circulating loops running synchronously allowed
ten 32-Gbaud PDM quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) channels on a 50-GHz grid to be
simultaneously launched and transmitted through the seven fiber cores over multiple spans.
Second, a novel core-to-core signal rotation scheme was implemented to simultaneously
equalize the optical characteristics of all cores in terms of loss, dispersion, and in-band
crosstalk, leading to improved overall system performance. In this paper, we expand on our
previous work [6] to detail the novel concepts and the transmission performance.
2. Seven-core MCF and tapered multicore fiber connector characteristics
The MCF [3,5] is designed for operation in C and L bands for applications in high SE and
high capacity optical networks, and consists of seven cores arranged in a hexagonal array with
9-m core diameter and 46.8-m core pitch (shown as a photograph in the inset of Fig. 1.).
The cladding diameter is 186.5 m and the polymer coating diameter is 315-m. The cutoff
wavelength of each core is ~1.44 m, and the mode-field diameter (MFD) at 1.55 m is 9.6
m. The dispersion and dispersion slope of each core in the MCF at 1.55 m is about 16.5
ps/km-nm and 0.06 ps/km-nm
2
, respectively. The measured attenuation for the center core is
about 0.23 dB/km and 0.37 dB/km at 1.55 m and 1.3 m respectively. The measured
attenuation for each of the six outer cores is about 0.26 dB/km and 0.40 dB/km at 1.55 m and
1.3 m respectively. The attenuation characteristics of all cores are low across the entire
transmission window [3] and the values are similar to that of a single-core standard single-
mode fiber.

Fig. 1. MCF with the TMC and photograph of cross-section of the MCF. Also shown is the
span loss table. The center core loss was increased with a 3-dB attenuator to match the loss of
the other cores.
It is crucial for multi-span MCF transmission to have an efficient coupling scheme
between each core of the MCF and external single-core components such as optical
amplifiers. A fiber-based tapered multicore coupler (TMC) was fabricated to match the core
spacing and modefield properties of the MCF, as illustrated in Fig. 1. The TMC was designed
to minimize power coupling between cores, eliminating the coupler as an additional source of
crosstalk. Two TMCs were used, one at the input end and the other at the output end of the
MCF. The measured insertion loss of each core of the two TMCs ranges between 0.5 dB and
2.8 dB, and the crosstalk between cores is less than 45 dB [5]. The high insertion loss for
some of the connections is attributed to small core misalignment, modefield mismatch and
core asymmetry.
#158087 - $15.00 USD Received 14 Nov 2011; accepted 12 Dec 2011; published 3 Jan 2012
(C) 2012 OSA 16 January 2012 / Vol. 20, No. 2 / OPTICS EXPRESS 707
3. Core-to-core signal rotation concept
The transmission performance of SDM systems using MCF must be maximized to reap the
benefits associated with such a multiplexing scheme. In particular, performance variations
among the signals traveling through the multiple cores of a multi-span MCF system need to be
minimized. (As an example, the signals propagating in the center core of a hexagonally
symmetric MCF, as shown in Fig. 1, experience crosstalk from signals propagating in all six
outer cores, which is 3-dB higher than the crosstalk from the three neighboring cores
experienced by signals propagating in the outer cores.) A potentially viable solution is to
increase the uniformity of the transmission characteristics of the cores in the MCF, such as
loss, dispersion, and crosstalk, through better fiber design and manufacturing. However, this
approach has its limitations and also makes fabrication issues challenging.
C
1
C
2
:
:
C
M
WDM channels
Singlecore-
to-Multicore
Connector
Singlecore-
to-Multicore
Connector
EDFA
EDFA
EDFA
Multicore fiber
(MCF) span i
WDM channels
WDM channels
Singlecore-
to-Multicore
Connector
Multicore fiber
(MCF) span i+1
C
1
C
2
:
:
C
M
C
2
C
3
:
:
C
1
C
1
C
2
:
:
C
M
WDM channels
Singlecore-
to-Multicore
Connector
Singlecore-
to-Multicore
Connector
EDFA
EDFA
EDFA
Multicore fiber
(MCF) span i
WDM channels
WDM channels
Singlecore-
to-Multicore
Connector
Multicore fiber
(MCF) span i+1
C
1
C
2
:
:
C
M
C
2
C
3
:
:
C
1

Fig. 2. Core-to-core signal rotation concept
Here, we propose and demonstrate a novel concept, termed core-to-core signal rotation
(CCR) that addresses the above concerns and maximizes transmission performance. The
concept is depicted schematically in Fig. 2. Every MCF span has single-core to multi-core
connectors (TMCs in our demonstration) that couple WDM channels in and out of the MCF.
The WDM channels launched into cores (C
1
, C
2
, , C
M
) of a MCF span are routed to a
spatially different core in the next MCF span and CCR continues along the MCF transmission
link. The locations where CCR is applied can be optical add/drop multiplexer (OADM) sites
and/or optical amplifier sites. Within some limitations, CCR can also be used at splice points
within a MCF span. In Fig. 2, the signal rotation is performed at the optical amplifier site,
where the signals from cores C
1
, C
2
, , C
M
, after amplification by erbium doped fiber
amplifiers (EDFA), are launched into cores C
2
, C
3
, , C
1
of the next MCF span. This CCR
approach not only reduces the worst-case crosstalk, but also has the effect of statistically
averaging out variations of span loss and dispersion among the cores, and any other
component imperfections along the transmission path of each core. This is particularly true in
a single-span recirculating loop using the same span elements repeatedly in the loop. In a
deployed straight-line MCF system, connecting individual MCF spans using CCR is expected
to have a similarly beneficial effect.
4. 2688-km SDM-DWDM transmission experiment
Figure 3 shows the schematic of the experimental setup.
SW
(a)
Core 1
SW
EDFA
WB1
EDFA
1
2
7
1
x
8

S
p
l
i
t
t
e
r
1x7 Switch
Monitor
WB8
(b)
Core 3
SW
EDFA
WB3
EDFA
Core 7
SW
EDFA
WB7
EDFA
1 7
TMC TMC
OLO
Signal
O
f
f
l
i
n
e

D
S
P
ADC
ADC
ADC
ADC P
o
l
a
r
iz
a
t
i
o
n
D
i
v
e
r
s
i
t
y
H
y
b
r
i
d
2
x

8
0
-
G
S
/
s

S
c
o
p
e
s
(c)
EDFA
PC
EDFA
Delay
PC
E
Y
PBC
E
X
odd
1
9
PBC
PC
Delay
PC
E
Y
E
X
IL
ECLs
/2
32Gb/s
32Gb/s
even
2
10
/2
32Gb/s
32Gb/s
10ps/div
SW SW
(a)
Core 1
SW
EDFA
WB1
EDFA
Core 1
SW
EDFA
WB1
EDFA
Core 1
SW
EDFA
Core 1
SW
EDFA
WB1
EDFA
1
2
7
1
x
8

S
p
l
i
t
t
e
r
1x7 Switch
Monitor
WB8 WB8
(b)
Core 3
SW
EDFA
WB3
EDFA
Core 7
SW
EDFA
WB7
EDFA
1 7
TMC TMC
OLO
Signal
O
f
f
l
i
n
e

D
S
P
ADC
ADC
ADC
ADC P
o
l
a
r
iz
a
t
i
o
n
D
i
v
e
r
s
i
t
y
H
y
b
r
i
d
2
x

8
0
-
G
S
/
s

S
c
o
p
e
s
OLO
Signal
O
f
f
l
i
n
e

D
S
P
ADC
ADC
ADC
ADC P
o
l
a
r
iz
a
t
i
o
n
D
i
v
e
r
s
i
t
y
H
y
b
r
i
d
OLO OLO
Signal
O
f
f
l
i
n
e

D
S
P
ADC
ADC
ADC
ADC P
o
l
a
r
iz
a
t
i
o
n
D
i
v
e
r
s
i
t
y
H
y
b
r
i
d
2
x

8
0
-
G
S
/
s

S
c
o
p
e
s
(c)
EDFA
PC PC
EDFA
Delay
PC PC
E
Y
PBC
E
X
odd
1
9
PBC
PC PC
Delay
PC PC
E
Y
E
X
IL
ECLs ECLs ECLs
/2
32Gb/s
32Gb/s
even
2
10
/2
32Gb/s
32Gb/s
10ps/div

Fig. 3. Schematic of the experimental setup: (a) transmitter; (b) multiple recirculating loops
with core-to-core rotation every round trip and (c) coherent receiver. Inset shows transmitter
eye diagram.
#158087 - $15.00 USD Received 14 Nov 2011; accepted 12 Dec 2011; published 3 Jan 2012
(C) 2012 OSA 16 January 2012 / Vol. 20, No. 2 / OPTICS EXPRESS 708
Ten C-band external cavity lasers (ECLs), each with a nominal linewidth of 100 kHz,
were operated on a 50-GHz frequency grid from 193.200 THz to 193.650 THz (1548.15 nm to
1551.72 nm). The odd and even channels were separately combined using passive power
combiners, and each group of five channels was separately modulated using integrated
double-nested Mach-Zehnder modulators with 35-GHz 3-dB bandwidth and V of 2.5 V. The
in-phase (I) and quadrature (Q) branches of the modulators were driven by 32-Gb/s binary
electrical signals from a pulse pattern generator with a pseudo-random bit sequence (PRBS) of
length 2
15
-1, with several tens of bits decorrelation between the I- and Q- waveforms.
Following modulation, polarization multiplexing was achieved by 3-dB splitting the WDM
signals, delaying one copy by several hundred symbols, and recombining them in a
polarization beam splitter (PBS) using manual polarization controllers (PCs). The odd and
even channels were then combined with a 100-GHz to 50-GHz interleaver (IL).
For SDM transmission, the ten DWDM channels were launched into a specially
configured 7-fold re-circulating loop apparatus that is running all the loops synchronously, as
shown in Fig. 3(b). The seven re-circulating loops shared a common load switch that launched
identical copies of the DWDM channels into each of the loops via a 1x8 power splitter. The
signals at each of the seven loop inputs were first amplified by erbium-doped fiber amplifiers
(EDFAs) before launching into a 76.8-km seven-core-fiber [2] through a TMC. The variations
in the fiber lengths from the splitter to each core input (which includes EDFAs with length
differences of several meters) were sufficient to provide multiple symbol decorrelation
between cores at the point of launch. A second TMC was used to couple out the signals after
transmission. The signals were amplified to compensate for the fiber loss, and channel powers
were equalized using a wavelength blocker (WB) array module that incorporated eight
independent 96-channel 50-GHz WBs. One WB was used per core of the MCF and the eighth
WB was used at the receiver as described later. This way, a two-dimensional
wavelength/space gain equalizing filter was constructed. After each WB, the DWDM signals
from one core were sent to the re-circulating loop input of the next core, in a cyclic fashion.
This ensured that the DWDM signals traversed each of the seven cores once every seven
round trips. The table in the inset of Fig. 1 shows the measured loss of each span, where a
span includes the input TMC, the core, and the output TMC [2]. The center span had about 3
dB less loss than the other spans due to variations in TMC losses and core losses [2]. A 3-dB
attenuator was inserted at the input to the center span, so that all seven cores had a nominal
span loss of about 23-24 dB.
A 1x7 optical switch (SW) was used to direct the received signal from the outputs of each
of the seven re-circulating loops to the eighth WB, where the WDM channel to be detected
was selected. This selected channel was then sent to a coherent receiver consisting of a
polarization-diversity 90-degree hybrid, followed by four balanced detectors. The signal was
combined with another ECL serving as the local oscillator (LO), tuned to within 100 MHz
of the signal carrier. The four signal components (Ix, Qx, Iy, Qy) were digitized
asynchronously using two synchronized 2-channel 80-GS/s real-time oscilloscopes. Digitized
waveforms of 1-million samples each were processed offline in a computer to perform
electronic dispersion compensation, polarization de-multiplexing, frequency/phase recovery,
and bit error ratio (BER) measurement using efficient PDM-QPSK algorithms [7] without any
crosstalk-compensating multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) processing.
5. Measurement results
Figure 4(a) shows the measured back-to-back BER performance of the 128-Gb/s PDM-QPSK
channel at 193.400 THz, while Fig. 4(b) shows the DWDM spectra before and after
transmission. The required optical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR), defined with a 0.1-nm noise
bandwidth, is 15.5 dB at BER = 1 10
3
, and 12.8 dB at BER = 1.5x10
2
, the threshold for
19.5% overhead hard-decision forward error correction (FEC) that is assumed in this
investigation following [8], where a BER of 1.5x10
2
(a Q
2
of 6.7 dB) was shown to be
correctable to a BER better than 1x10
15
. Compared to the theoretical performance (red curve
#158087 - $15.00 USD Received 14 Nov 2011; accepted 12 Dec 2011; published 3 Jan 2012
(C) 2012 OSA 16 January 2012 / Vol. 20, No. 2 / OPTICS EXPRESS 709
in Fig. 4(a)), the implementation penalty was 1.6 dB at BER = 1 10
3
. With the overhead
assumed in this investigation, the net data rate of each wavelength channel is 107.3-Gb/s,
yielding a net DWDM SE of 2.15-b/s/Hz in each core, and a net aggregate per-fiber SE of 15-
b/s/Hz.
-1
-2
-3
-4
-5
11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19
Theory
Experiment
OSNR in 0.1nm RBW (dB)
l
o
g

(
E
r
r
o
r

P
r
o
b
a
b
i
l
i
t
y
)
OSNR=40 dB
-40
-35
-30
-25
-20
-15
-10
1547.5 1548.5 1549.5 1550.5 1551.5 1552.5
Launched
Received
WAVELENGTH (nm)
P
O
W
E
R

(
d
B
m
)
(a) (b) -1
-2
-3
-4
-5
11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19
Theory
Experiment
OSNR in 0.1nm RBW (dB)
l
o
g

(
E
r
r
o
r

P
r
o
b
a
b
i
l
i
t
y
)
OSNR=40 dB
-40
-35
-30
-25
-20
-15
-10
1547.5 1548.5 1549.5 1550.5 1551.5 1552.5
Launched
Received
WAVELENGTH (nm)
P
O
W
E
R

(
d
B
m
)
-1
-2
-3
-4
-5
11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19
Theory
Experiment
OSNR in 0.1nm RBW (dB)
l
o
g

(
E
r
r
o
r

P
r
o
b
a
b
i
l
i
t
y
)
OSNR=40 dB
-1
-2
-3
-4
-5
11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19
Theory
Experiment
OSNR in 0.1nm RBW (dB)
l
o
g

(
E
r
r
o
r

P
r
o
b
a
b
i
l
i
t
y
)
OSNR=40 dB
-40
-35
-30
-25
-20
-15
-10
1547.5 1548.5 1549.5 1550.5 1551.5 1552.5
Launched
Received
WAVELENGTH (nm)
P
O
W
E
R

(
d
B
m
)
(a) (b)

Fig. 4. (a) Measured back-to-back BER performance of the 128-Gb/s PDM-QPSK channel at
193.400 THz. Inset: typical recovered signal constellation at an OSNR of 40 dB. (b) Spectra of
the 10x128-Gb/s DWDM channels before and after transmission.
10
-3
10
-2
10
-1
-3 -2 -1 0 1 2
Loop 7
Loop 6
Loop 5
Loop 4
Loop 3
Loop 2
Loop 1
SIGNAL LAUNCH POWER (dBm)
B
E
R
10
-3
10
-2
10
-1
-3 -2 -1 0 1 2
Loop 7
Loop 6
Loop 5
Loop 4
Loop 3
Loop 2
Loop 1
SIGNAL LAUNCH POWER (dBm)
B
E
R
7 14 21 28 35 42 49
Number of Spans
-1
-2
-3
-4
-5
-6
537.6 1075.2 1612.8 2150.4 2688.0 3225.6 3763.2
Loop 7
Loop 6
Loop 5
Loop 4
Loop 3
Loop 2
Loop 1
TRANSMISSION DISTANCE (km)
l
o
g

(
E
r
r
o
r

P
r
o
b
a
b
i
l
i
t
y
)
7 14 21 28 35 42 49
Number of Spans
7 14 21 28 35 42 49
Number of Spans
-1
-2
-3
-4
-5
-6
537.6 1075.2 1612.8 2150.4 2688.0 3225.6 3763.2
Loop 7
Loop 6
Loop 5
Loop 4
Loop 3
Loop 2
Loop 1
TRANSMISSION DISTANCE (km)
l
o
g

(
E
r
r
o
r

P
r
o
b
a
b
i
l
i
t
y
)
(a)
(b)
10
-3
10
-2
10
-1
-3 -2 -1 0 1 2
Loop 7
Loop 6
Loop 5
Loop 4
Loop 3
Loop 2
Loop 1
SIGNAL LAUNCH POWER (dBm)
B
E
R
10
-3
10
-2
10
-1
-3 -2 -1 0 1 2
Loop 7
Loop 6
Loop 5
Loop 4
Loop 3
Loop 2
Loop 1
SIGNAL LAUNCH POWER (dBm)
B
E
R
7 14 21 28 35 42 49
Number of Spans
-1
-2
-3
-4
-5
-6
537.6 1075.2 1612.8 2150.4 2688.0 3225.6 3763.2
Loop 7
Loop 6
Loop 5
Loop 4
Loop 3
Loop 2
Loop 1
TRANSMISSION DISTANCE (km)
l
o
g

(
E
r
r
o
r

P
r
o
b
a
b
i
l
i
t
y
)
7 14 21 28 35 42 49
Number of Spans
7 14 21 28 35 42 49
Number of Spans
-1
-2
-3
-4
-5
-6
537.6 1075.2 1612.8 2150.4 2688.0 3225.6 3763.2
Loop 7
Loop 6
Loop 5
Loop 4
Loop 3
Loop 2
Loop 1
TRANSMISSION DISTANCE (km)
l
o
g

(
E
r
r
o
r

P
r
o
b
a
b
i
l
i
t
y
)
(a)
(b)

Fig. 5. (a) BER as a function of launch power per core at a distance of 2688 km of the channel
at 193.400 THz, measured at the output of each of the seven loops. Inset: typical recovered
signal constellation at 2688 km from the output of loop 1. (b) BER performances of the channel
at 193.400 THz as a function of distance, measured at the output of each of the sevens loops,
with 0-dBm launch power into each core.
Figure 5(a) shows the received BER as a function of launch power per core at a distance of
2688 km (35 round trips) for the channel at 193.400 THz, measured at each of the seven loop
outputs. At this distance, the variations in BER from core to core are uncorrelated and mostly
determined by the uncertainty in equalizing the DWDM channel powers. The optimum launch
power for this reach is around 0 1 dBm, where the BER from all the cores is below the FEC
threshold of 1.5x10
2
. It is instructive to mention here that the spread in the BER for a given
power from the seven loop outputs is small, as expected for the CCR scheme implemented
here. In the absence of such a scrambling, the spread is generally too large from signal
#158087 - $15.00 USD Received 14 Nov 2011; accepted 12 Dec 2011; published 3 Jan 2012
(C) 2012 OSA 16 January 2012 / Vol. 20, No. 2 / OPTICS EXPRESS 710
power variations originating in the finite granularity of the WB attenuator setting used for
channel equalization. In our experiment, we found the BER varied between 3x10
3
to 5x10
2

at a given nominal launch power of 0 dBm.
In an independent experiment, a single span of 80-km single-core standard single mode
fiber (SSMF) was incorporated in a recirculating loop with one EDFA at the launch, one
EDFA following the span transmission, and one WB for channel equalization. The span loss
of this setup was adjusted to match that of the center core of the MCF with attenuators placed
both at the input (to emulate the input TMC loss) and at the output (to emulate the output
TMC loss). The optimum launch power for transmission over 35 spans was found to be
between 2 dBm and 0 dBm, limited by the accuracy of setting the channel powers. The
received BER was between 5x10
3
and 2.0x10
2
for the channel at 193.400 THz, similar to
that measured with the MCF. These results confirm that SDM transmission performance with
the MCF matches that of single-core SSMF spans, providing further evidence of the low
crosstalk characteristics of the MCF as well as the benefits of CCR for averaging out the
impairments.
In all subsequent experiments, the power of each channel was set to a nominal value of 0
dBm in each core. Figure 5(b) shows the measured BER as a function of distance traversed in
the MCF for the channel at 193.400 THz. Measurements were made on this channel at all
seven loop outputs. The spread in the BER from the different cores is low, demonstrating the
benefit of using CCR at every span to equalize the performance of all the cores.
10
-3
10
-2
10
-1
193.1 193.2 193.3 193.4 193.5 193.6 193.7
Loop 7
Loop 6
Loop 5
Loop 4
Loop 3
Loop 2
Loop 1
WAVELENGTH (THz)
B
E
R

Fig. 6. BER performance of all the ten DWDM channels after transmission over 2688 km (35
spans), measured at the outputs of the seven loops, with 0-dBm launch power into each core.
Finally, the BER performance of each of the ten DWDM channels is shown in Fig. 6, at
the transmission distance of 2688 km. Measurements were made at the output of each loop
and WB8 was set to select each of the ten channels. The measurements indicate that the worst
and best BER values are 1.3x10
2
(Q
2
value of 7 dB) and 2.7x10
3
(Q
2
value of 9 dB),
respectively, below the FEC threshold of 1.5x10
2
. The delivered OSNR at the nominal
launch power of 0 dBm was between 14 and 16 dB among the ten channels at the seven loop
outputs, indicating a transmission penalty of about 1dB.
6. Summary
We have successfully transmitted ten 50-GHz spaced 128-Gb/s PDM-QPSK channels over 35
spans of a low-crosstalk MCF, achieving a net aggregate per-fiber spectral efficiency of 15
b/s/Hz and a net aggregate per-fiber spectral efficiency times distance-product of 40,320
kmb/s/Hz. A novel core-to-core rotation scheme was implemented that allowed for statistical
averaging of the transmission performance over multi-span MCF. The demonstration
highlights the promise of using the newly available low-crosstalk MCF to enable transmission
over long distances with mature and well-established coherent reception techniques.
Acknowledgments
The authors wish to thank A. R. Chraplyvy and D. J. DiGiovanni for support.
#158087 - $15.00 USD Received 14 Nov 2011; accepted 12 Dec 2011; published 3 Jan 2012
(C) 2012 OSA 16 January 2012 / Vol. 20, No. 2 / OPTICS EXPRESS 711