Peta-bit-per-second optical communications system using a standard cladding diameter 15-mode fiber.

Data rates in optical fiber networks have increased exponentially over the past decades and core-networks are expected to operate in the peta-bit-per-second regime by 2030. As current single-mode fiber-based transmission systems are reaching their capacity limits, space-division multiplexing has been investigated as a means to increase the per-fiber capacity. Of all space-division multiplexing fibers proposed to date, multi-mode fibers have the highest spatial channel density, as signals traveling in orthogonal fiber modes share the same fiber-core. By combining a high mode-count multi-mode fiber with wideband wavelength-division multiplexing, we report a peta-bit-per-second class transmission demonstration in multi-mode fibers. This was enabled by combining three key technologies: a wideband optical comb-based transmitter to generate highly spectral efficient 64-quadrature-amplitude modulated signals between 1528 nm and 1610 nm wavelength, a broadband mode-multiplexer, based on multi-plane light conversion, and a 15-mode multi-mode fiber with optimized transmission characteristics for wideband operation.

A novel error correction protocol for continuous variable quantum key distribution.

Reconciliation is a key element of continuous-variable quantum key distribution (CV-QKD) protocols, affecting both the complexity and performance of the entire system. During the reconciliation protocol, error correction is typically performed using low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes with a single decoding attempt. In this paper, we propose a modification to a conventional reconciliation protocol used in four-state protocol CV-QKD systems called the multiple decoding attempts (MDA) protocol. MDA uses multiple decoding attempts with LDPC codes, each attempt having fewer decoding iteration than the conventional protocol. Between each decoding attempt we propose to reveal information bits, which effectively lowers the code rate. MDA is shown to outperform the conventional protocol in regards to the secret key rate (SKR). A 10% decrease in frame error rate and an 8.5% increase in SKR are reported in this paper. A simple early termination for the LDPC decoder is also proposed and implemented. With early termination, MDA has decoding complexity similar to the conventional protocol while having an improved SKR.

Secret key rates for intensity-modulated dual-threshold detection key distribution under individual beam splitting attacks.

We investigate the secret key rates for the recently proposed intensity-modulated dual-threshold key distribution [T. Ikuta and K. Inoue, New J. Phys. 18 (2016)] under beam splitting attacks. We show that previous assumptions on an eavesdropper that performs hard decision measurements on the channel, overestimates the secret key rate. We discuss the impact of an eavesdropper that can measure full soft information and give the secret key rates under forward and reverse reconciliation. Further, we perform simulations for different system assumptions and show the optimal modulation depths for these systems. We also outline an attack on this protocol based on photon counting that prohibits secret key generation.

Long-haul coherent communications using microresonator-based frequency combs.

Microresonator-based frequency combs are strong contenders as light sources for wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM). Recent experiments have shown the potential of microresonator combs for replacing a multitude of WDM lasers with a single laser-pumped device. Previous demonstrations have however focused on short-distance few-span links reaching an impressive throughput at the expense of transmission distance. Here we report the first long-haul coherent communication demonstration using a microresonator-based comb source. We modulated polarization multiplexed (PM) quadrature phase-shift keying-data onto the comb lines allowing transmission over more than 6300 km in a single-mode fiber. In a second experiment, we reached beyond 700 km with the PM 16 quadrature amplitude modulation format. To the best of our knowledge, these results represent the longest fiber transmission ever achieved using an integrated comb source.

Self-homodyne 24×32-QAM superchannel receiver enabled by all-optical comb regeneration using brillouin amplification.

We demonstrate and characterize an all-optical self-homodyne (SH) frequency superchannel enabled by comb regeneration at the receiver. In order to generate the superchannel, we use a frequency comb with 26 carriers spaced by 25 GHz at the transmitter, from which 24 carriers are modulated with polarization-multiplexed 32 quadrature amplitude modulation (PM 32-QAM) data. To enable comb regeneration at the receiver side, the two central carriers remain unmodulated. High fidelity comb regeneration is achieved by filtering the two unmodulated carriers with an approximately 25 MHz wide optical filter based on Brillouin amplification before a parametric mixer. The carriers from the regenerated comb are then used as local oscillator for SH detection. We demonstrate that all 24 carriers can be detected with an optical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR) penalty lower than 2.5 dB in a back-to-back scenario. We also demonstrate that the whole superchannel can be transmitted through 120 km of single-mode fiber (SMF) and be detected with bit-error rate (BER) below 0.015.

Fast and robust chromatic dispersion estimation based on temporal auto-correlation after digital spectrum superposition.

We investigate and experimentally demonstrate a fast and robust chromatic dispersion (CD) estimation method based on temporal auto-correlation after digital spectrum superposition. The estimation process is fast, because neither tentative CD scanning based on CD compensation nor specific cost function calculations are used. Meanwhile, the proposed CD estimation method is robust against polarization mode dispersion (PMD), amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) noise and fiber nonlinearity. Furthermore, the proposed CD estimation method can be used for various modulation formats and digital pulse shaping technique. Only 4096 samples are necessary for CD estimation of single carrier either 112 Gbps DP-QPSK or 224 Gbps DP-16QAM signal with various pulse shapes. 8192 samples are sufficient for the root-raised-cosine pulse with roll-off factor of 0.1. As low as 50 ps/nm standard deviation together with a worst estimation error of about 160 ps/nm is experimentally obtained for 7×112 Gbps DP-QPSK WDM signal after the transmission through 480 km to 9120 km single mode fiber (SMF) loop using different launch powers.

Single parity check-coded 16QAM over spatial superchannels in multicore fiber transmission.

We experimentally investigate single-parity check (SPC) coded spatial superchannels based on polarization-multiplexed 16-ary quadrature amplitude modulation (PM-16QAM) for multicore fiber transmission systems, using a 7-core fiber. We investigate SPC over 1, 2, 4, 5 or 7 cores in a back-to-back configuration and compare the sensitivity to uncoded PM-16QAM, showing that at symbol rates of 20 Gbaud and at a bit-error-rate (BER) of 10-3, the SPC superchannels exhibit sensitivity improvements of 2.7 dB, 2.0 dB, 1.7 dB, 1.3 dB, and 1.1 dB, respectively. We perform both single channel and wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) transmission experiments with 22 GHz channel spacing and 20 Gbaud channel symbol rate for SPC over 1, 3 and 7 cores and compare the results to PM-16QAM with the same spacing and symbol rate. We show that in WDM signals, SPC over hl1 core can achieve more than double the transmission distance compared to PM-16QAM at the cost of 0.91 bit/s/Hz/core in spectral efficiency (SE). When sharing the parity-bit over 7 cores, the loss in SE becomes only 0.13 bit/s/Hz/core while the increase in transmission reach over PM-16QAM is 44 %.

Comparison of 128-SP-QAM and PM-16QAM in long-haul WDM transmission.

We investigate 128-level set-partitioning quadrature amplitude modulation (128-SP-QAM) experimentally and compare the performance to polarization-multiplexed 16QAM both at the same bit rate and at the same symbol rate. Using a recirculating loop we study both single channel and wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) transmission and demonstrate a reach of up to 2680 km at a bit-error rate of 10(-3) for 128-SP-QAM. We confirm that 128-SP-QAM has an increased sensitivity compared to PM-16QAM and show that the maximum transmission distance can be increased by more than 50 % at the same bit rate for both single channel and WDM transmission. We also investigate the performance at the same symbol rate as a possible fall back solution in a degrading link.