Bell Labs, the research arm of telecom network vendor Alcatel-Lucent, today announced MIMO-SDM technology at the 2015 IEEE Photonics conference.

MIMO-SDM technology has potential to increase today’s 10 to 20 Terabit-per-second fiber capacities to Petabit-per-second capacity – the equivalent of 1,000 Terabits/s.

Bell Labs has conducted the 6×6 MIMO-SDM real-time experiment using six transmitters and six receivers in combination with real- time digital signal processing over a 60-km-long coupled-mode fiber in its headquarters in New Jersey.

During the 6×6 real-time MIMO transmission technology experiment, crosstalk from multiple signals on a special fiber supporting six parallel optical signal paths was removed for the first time using real-time processing.

Increase in capacity limits of optical networks will assist in traffic expected from 5G and the Internet of Things (IoT).
Telecom network operators and enterprises are witnessing data traffic growth at cumulative annual rates of up to 100 percent. There will be an acute need for commercial optical transport systems capable of handling Petabit-per-second capacities once 5G mobile technology takes off.

Using the MIMO-SDM technology, Bell Labs aims to overcome the capacity limitations on current optical fiber.
The MIMO-SDM technique has the potential to increase current fiber capacities to a Petabit-per-second — enough capacity to allow two-thirds of the U.S. population to simultaneously stream HD movies over a single optical fiber.

Baburajan K
[email protected]