Ultra-Bend-Resistant 4-Core Simplex Cable Used for Short-Reach Dense Spatial Division Multiplexing Optical...

Area of Science:

• Optical Engineering
• Telecommunications
• Materials Science

Background:

• Short-reach optical interconnects face increasing demands for higher data rates and density.
• Dense spatial division multiplexing (DSDM) offers a path to increased capacity but requires robust fiber infrastructure.
• Existing fiber optic cables can be susceptible to performance degradation under tight bending conditions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To optimize and fabricate an ultra-bend-resistant 4-core simplex cable (SXC) for O-band DSDM applications.
• To characterize the transmission loss, macro-bending, and cross-talk (XT) performance of the fabricated 4-core SXC.
• To demonstrate the feasibility of high-speed optical transmission over the developed bend-resistant cable.

Main Methods:

• Fabrication of a 4-core simplex cable (SXC) using 4-core multicore fiber (MCF).
• Introduction of a trapezoid index and optimization of the cabling process to enhance bend resistance.
• Characterization of transmission loss, macro-bending loss, and inter-core cross-talk (XT).
• Demonstration of 100 Gbps optical transmission using a 100GBASE-LR4 transceiver over a 1.2 km cable.

Main Results:

• Achieved maximum added XT of 1.17 dB/km under 10 loops with a 6 mm bending radius.
• Measured a macro-bending loss of 0.37 dB/10 turns.
• Successfully demonstrated low bit error rate (BER) optical transmission over the 1.2 km 4-core SXC.
• The developed SXC exhibits excellent resistance to macro-bending.

Conclusions:

• The optimized 4-core SXC demonstrates superior bend resistance crucial for DSDM applications.
• This technology can significantly reduce space requirements in optical interconnects.
• The findings pave the way for increased access density in short-reach optical networks.