12 x 12 MIMO Transmission over 130-km Few-Mode Fiber

AbstractWe experimentally demonstrate 12 x 12 multiple-input multiple-output mode multiplexed transmission over 130-km of few-mode fiber of a combined 6-space-, 2-polarization-, and 16-wavelengthdivision multiplex, using two low-loss photonic lantern fiber couplers. The 40-Gbit/s QPSK signals with an aggregate line-rate of 7.7 Tbit/s were recovered by coherent multiple-input-multiple-output off-line digital signal processing, an increased spectral efficiency of 30 bit/s/Hz is achieved with a 25 Gbaud 16-QAM signal over a distance of 65 km.