Reinforcement learning-based adaptive beam alignment in a photodiode-integrated array antenna module.

We successfully demonstrated an intelligent adaptive beam alignment scheme using a reinforcement learning (RL) algorithm integrated with an 8 × 8 photonic array antenna operating in the 40 GHz millimeter wave (MMW) band. In our proposed scheme, the three key elements of RL: state, action, and reward, are represented as the phase values in the photonic array antenna, phase changes with specified steps, and an obtained error vector magnitude (EVM) value, respectively. Furthermore, thanks to the Q-table, the RL agent can effectively choose the most suitable action based on its prior experiences. As a result, the proposed scheme autonomously achieves the best EVM performance by determining the optimal phase. In this Letter, we verify the capability of the proposed scheme in single- and multiple-user scenarios and experimentally demonstrate the performance of beam alignment to the user's location optimized by the RL algorithm. The achieved results always meet the signal quality requirement specified by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) criterion for 64-QAM orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM).

Ultralinear 140-GHz FMCW signal generation with optical parametric wideband frequency modulation enabling 1-mm range resolution.

We demonstrate ultralinear and ultrawideband frequency-modulated continuous-wave (FMCW) signal generation using an optical parametric wideband frequency modulation (OPWBFM) method. The OPWBFM method optically expands the bandwidths of FMCW signals beyond the electrical bandwidths of optical modulators via a cascaded four-wave mixing (FWM) process. Compared to the conventional direct modulation approach, the OPWBFM method simultaneously achieves high linearity and a short measurement time of the frequency sweep. On the other hand, it is also known that the OPWBFM method expands the phase noise of idlers as well as their bandwidths if an input conjugate pair has different phase noise. To avoid this phase noise expansion, it is crucial to synchronize the phase of an input complex conjugate pair of an FMCW signal using an optical frequency comb. For demonstration, we successfully generated an ultralinear 140-GHz FMCW signal by using the OPWBFM method. Moreover, we employ a frequency comb in the conjugate pair generation process, leading to the mitigation of phase noise expansion. By using a 140-GHz FMCW signal, we achieve a range resolution of ∼1 mm through fiber-based distance measurement. The results show the feasibility of an ultralinear and ultrawideband FMCW system with a sufficiently short measurement time.

Trans-Pacific class transmission over a standard cladding ultralow-loss 4-core fiber.

The total capacity of optical submarine cable systems as a global communication infrastructure must be continuously enlarged. Multi-core fibers (MCFs) have been studied as methods to maximize the total cable capacity under electrical power and cable space limitations. In particular, standard cladding MCFs, which are expected to have high productivity and mechanical reliability, are attractive for early deployment in submarine cable systems. In this paper, we demonstrate high-capacity trans-Pacific class transmission using standard cladding uncoupled 4-core fibers, achieving a transmission capacity of 55.94 Tbit/s over 12,040 km. In addition, based on the results of this and our previous coupled MCF transmission experiments, we summarize the characteristics of coupled and uncoupled MCFs applied to optical submarine cable systems.

Spatial-light-modulator-based optical-fiber joint switch for few-mode multicore fibers.

To realize simplified cost-efficient optical networks with routing flexibility and scaling potential, a spatial-light-modulator-based optical-fiber joint switch for few-mode multicore fibers is proposed herein, which can route all spatial channels together as a unit. Numerical simulations and experiments were performed, and the results show that the signal paths for a 6-mode 19-core fiber can be simultaneously switched to the target output ports using the proposed method, and the mode-field patterns of the diffracted light can be maintained after joint switching. Further, the maximum port crosstalk can be reduced considerably from -11.6 to -25.1 dB by changing the position of the output port in the proposed method.

Photonic Armstrong method enabled by direct detection for wideband electrical PM generation.

Wideband signal generation using frequency/phase modulation (FM/PM) is the key fundamental function for various applications such as radar and analog communication systems. It is well known that analog FM/PM communication systems can dramatically improve signal quality by spectral expansion. In classical communication theories, the Armstrong indirect method is one of the most popular methods for bandwidth expansion of FM signals. In the Armstrong method, a narrowband signal is converted to a broadband signal with the help of a nonlinear frequency multiplier. In this paper, we propose a photonic Armstrong method enabled by direct detection. By utilizing the nonlinearity caused by direct detection, we can increase bandwidth so that it is double that of the original signal in the photonic Armstrong method. Also, it completely eliminates signal-to-signal beat interference (SSBI) at the same time. We conducted an experiment to verify the concept and confirmed these advantages experimentally.

Weakly coupled 10-mode-division multiplexed transmission over 48-km few-mode fibers with real-time coherent MIMO receivers.

For weakly coupled mode-division multiplexed (MDM) transmission systems, we design and implement optical coherent receiver prototypes with real-time multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) digital signal processing to equalize two degenerate linearly polarized modes with dual polarization. Using field programmable gate array circuits, we implement real-value 8 × 2 MIMO adaptive equalization with externally separated phase compensators based on the least mean square algorithm, which enables not only training equalization but also fast carrier-phase tracking. With the optical coherent MIMO receiver prototype, we demonstrate real-time weakly coupled 10 × MDM wavelength-division multiplexed dual-polarization quadrature phase shift keying transmission over 48-km few-mode fibers. This report shows a record number of multiplexed spatial modes, namely, 10 modes with dual polarization, in real-time MDM transmission experiments.

Effective area measurement of few-mode fiber using far field scan technique with Hankel transform generalized for circularly-asymmetric mode.

We report on a measurement method for the effective area of the few-mode fiber. We derived a transform equation between a near-field pattern and a far-field pattern generalized for circularly-asymmetric higher-order modes of a cylindrical core, and enabled effective area measurement of the higher-order modes using high-dynamic-range far-field scan technique and low-crosstalk mode multiplexer. The measured effective area values agreed well with the values that were numerically predicted using a finite-element method from the refractive index profile, when the modal crosstalk was suppressed.

Reference-free holographic diversity interferometry via iterative measurements for high accuracy phase detection.

To obtain a phase distribution without the use of an optical path besides an object beam, a reference-free holographic diversity interferometry (RF-HDI) has been proposed. Although the RF-HDI can generate an internal reference beam from the object beam, the method has a problem of measurement accuracy due to insufficient power of the internal reference beam. To solve the problem, we newly propose a RF-HDI via iterative measurements. Our method improves the measurement accuracy by utilizing iterative measurements and feedback of each obtained phase image to the measurement system. In the experiment, the phase image, which has a random pattern, can be measured as an object beam with a higher accuracy than in the conventional RF-HDI. To support this result, we also evaluated the wavefront accuracy and optical power efficiency of an internal reference beam in this method. As a result, we verified that our method enables us to generate an internal reference beam that has the wavefront of a near single plane wave and a higher power efficiency than the conventional RF-HDI. In addition, our method can be applied to measurement for the modal content in an optical fiber, atmosphere turbulence, etc., where it is difficult to prepare an external reference beam with a high coherency.

Ultra-dense spatial-division-multiplexed optical fiber transmission over 6-mode 19-core fibers.

Ultra-dense spatial-division multiplexing (SDM) is achieved by mode multiplexed technique with multiple cores in a single fiber, namely few-mode multi-core fiber. Using a 9.8-km six-mode nineteen-core fiber, we demonstrate an ultra-dense SDM transmission of 16-channels wavelength-division-multiplexed (WDM) dual-polarization quadrature phase shift keying signals, achieving a record spatial multiplicity of 114. With the help of ultra-dense Super-Nyquist WDM techniques in the 4.5-THz bandwidth of the full C-band, we demonstrate 2.05 Pbit/s transmission over 9.8-km six-mode nineteen-core fibers. In this experiment, the highest aggregate spectral efficiency of 456 bit/s/Hz is achieved.

Scalable software-defined optical networking with high-performance routing and wavelength assignment algorithms.

The feasibility of software-defined optical networking (SDON) for a practical application critically depends on scalability of centralized control performance. The paper, highly scalable routing and wavelength assignment (RWA) algorithms are investigated on an OpenFlow-based SDON testbed for proof-of-concept demonstration. Efficient RWA algorithms are proposed to achieve high performance in achieving network capacity with reduced computation cost, which is a significant attribute in a scalable centralized-control SDON. The proposed heuristic RWA algorithms differ in the orders of request processes and in the procedures of routing table updates. Combined in a shortest-path-based routing algorithm, a hottest-request-first processing policy that considers demand intensity and end-to-end distance information offers both the highest throughput of networks and acceptable computation scalability. We further investigate trade-off relationship between network throughput and computation complexity in routing table update procedure by a simulation study.

Selective mode multiplexer based on phase plates and Mach-Zehnder interferometer with image inversion function.

We propose a novel mode multiplexer based on phase plates followed by a Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) with image inversion. After the higher-order modes are selectively converted from fundamental linear-polarized (LP) modes by the phase plates, the converted modes are coupled without fundamental loss using MZI with image inversion, in which the original spatial pattern and inverted pattern of the optical signal are interfered. Our scheme is also applicable to the coupling of degenerated LP modes such as LP(11a) and LP(11b). First, we numerically and experimentally evaluate the performance of the mode converter based on phase plates. The mode converter is suitable as long as the five LP modes such as LP(01), LP(11ab) and LP(21ab) are sustained in a few-mode fiber (FMF), although the crosstalk due to excitation of undesirable modes is unavoidable when the higher-order modes over LP(02) are sustained in FMF. Next, we develop and characterize the proposed mode multiplexers based on phase plates and MZIs with image inversion. The insertion loss is suppressed to around 3 dB for mode multiplexing of LP(11a) and LP(11b). Using a fabricated mode multiplexer for LP(31a) and LP(31b), we measure the bit-error rate performance of single-polarization mode-multiplexed quadrature-phase shift keying optical signals.

Performance evaluation of selective mode conversion based on phase plates for a 10-mode fiber.

We numerically and experimentally evaluate the performance of higher-order mode conversion based on phase plates for 10-mode fibers (10MFs). The phase plates have the phase jump of π between multiple planes, which match the phase patterns of linearly polarized (LP) modes of 10MF. First, we numerically investigate the effects of the fabrication errors such as the phase-difference error and the slope in the phase jump of the phase plate. The simulation results for the mode conversion to LP11 indicate that such errors make the spatial pattern of the converted beam asymmetric. In order to maintain the symmetric pattern, the phase-difference error is required to be less than ± 2%, and the ratio of the slope width to the input beam waist should be suppressed to be less than 0.05. Next, we calculate the coupling power efficiencies of the excitation of LP modes in 10MF when the converted beams after the phase plate are launched into 10MF using a lens. As the calculation results, highly accurate adjustment of the input beam waist is required to suppress the crosstalk due to coupling of undesirable LP modes by less than -20 dB. For mode excitation of LP11 or LP12, crosstalk of more than -20 dB is not avoidable even if the input beam waist is carefully adjusted. In contrast, the crosstalk for the mode excitation of LP21 or LP31 is easily suppressed to be less than -20 dB without careful adjustment of the input beam waist. These results suggest that phase plates are not applicable to mode conversion to LP11 and LP12 in 10MF while they are suitable for conversion to LP02, LP21 and LP31. Finally, we experimentally demonstrate conversion from LP01 to LP21 and LP31 modes in 10MF using phase plates. We obtain nearly ideal LP21 and LP31 modes with the small crosstalk due to the coupling of the other undesirable LP modes.

Design and performance evaluation of an OpenFlow-based control plane for software-defined elastic optical networks with direct-detection optical OFDM (DDO-OFDM) transmission.

Optical Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (O-OFDM), which transmits high speed optical signals using multiple spectrally overlapped lower-speed subcarriers, is a promising candidate for supporting future elastic optical networks. In contrast to previous works which focus on Coherent Optical OFDM (CO-OFDM), in this paper, we consider the direct-detection optical OFDM (DDO-OFDM) as the transport technique, which leads to simpler hardware and software realizations, potentially offering a low-cost solution for elastic optical networks, especially in metro networks, and short or medium distance core networks. Based on this network scenario, we design and deploy a software-defined networking (SDN) control plane enabled by extending OpenFlow, detailing the network architecture, the routing and spectrum assignment algorithm, OpenFlow protocol extensions and the experimental validation. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first time that an OpenFlow-based control plane is reported and its performance is quantitatively measured in an elastic optical network with DDO-OFDM transmission.

Super-Nyquist-WDM transmission over 7,326-km seven-core fiber with capacity-distance product of 1.03 Exabit/s · km.

We show super-Nyquist-WDM transmission technique, where optical signals with duobinary-pulse shaping can be wavelength-multiplexed with frequency spacing of below baudrate. Duobinary-pulse shaping can reduce the signal bandwidth to be a half of baudrate while controlling inter-symbol interference can be compensated by the maximum likelihood sequence estimation in a receiver. First, we experimentally evaluate crosstalk characteristics as a function of channel spacing between the dual-channel DP-QPSK signals with duobinary-pulse shaping. As a result, the crosstalk penalty can be almost negligible as far as the ratio of baudrate to frequency spacing is maintained to be less than 1.20. Next, we demonstrate 140.7-Tbit/s, 7,326-km transmission of 7 × 201-channel 25-GHz-spaced super-Nyquist-WDM 100-Gbit/s optical signals using seven-core fiber and full C-band seven-core EDFAs. To the best of our knowledge, this is one of the first reports of high-capacity transmission experiments with capacity-distance product in excess of 1 Exabit/s · km.

Trans-oceanic class ultra-long-haul transmission using multi-core fiber.

Space-division multiplexing with uncoupled multi-core fiber is a promising technology to drastically increase a fiber capacity in optical communication systems. Trans-oceanic class ultra-long-haul transmission was successfully achieved by using 7-core MCF with suppressed inter-core crosstalk. By using a combination of MCF and spectral efficient modulation format, the fiber capacity could be increased from 28.8 Tbit/s to 140 Tbit/s and a capacity-distance product exceeding 1 Exabit/s·km was obtained in 7 cores x 201 λ x 100 Gbit/s transmission over 7326 km. These results indicate that the MCF transmission will be one of promising candidates for future ultra-high capacity optical communication systems.

110.9-Tbit/s SDM transmission over 6,370 km using a full C-band seven-core EDFA.

We confirm the feasibility of 100-Tbit/s-class trans-oceanic SDM transmission. Using seven-core fiber spans with seven-core full C-band EDFAs, 7 × 264-channel quasi-Nyquist-WDM 60-Gbit/s PDM-QPSK signals are transmitted over 6,370 km.

On the long-memory filtering gain in optical high-order QAM transmission systems.

In this paper, we verify the effectiveness of the last-stage long memory filter (LMF) in mitigating the long-memory response (LMR) of hardware, i.e. the transmitter and receiver. Based on the experimental results, we draw the following conclusions: 1) LMF can effectively mitigate the LMR impact, such as transmitter reflections, and its efficiency is more significant for high-order QAM signals. 2) Using LMF, a partially-correlated pattern exhibits similar performance to that of an uncorrelated pattern both in back-to-back and after 320-km standard single mode fiber (SSMF) transmission. Moreover, a simple solution to the computational complexity of LMF, effective-tap (ET) LMF, is proposed and demonstrated.

Experimental demonstration of an OpenFlow/PCE integrated control plane for IP over translucent WSON with the assistance of a per-request-based dynamic topology server.

To mitigate the potential scalability issues of an OpenFlow-based control plane, a seamless OpenFlow and Path Computation Element (PCE) integrated control plane is proposed, by means of an architecture in which the path computation function is formally decoupled from the controller so the controller can off-load the task to one or more dedicated PCEs using an open and standard interface and protocol, and where the PCE obtains its topology database by means of a dedicated dynamic topology server, which is accessed by the PCE on a per-request basis. The overall feasibility and performance metrics of this integrated control plane are experimentally verified and quantitatively evaluated on a real IP over translucent Wavelength Switched Optical Network (WSON) testbed.

OpenSlice: an OpenFlow-based control plane for spectrum sliced elastic optical path networks.

A control plane is a key enabling technique for dynamic and intelligent end-to-end path provisioning in optical networks. In this paper, we present an OpenFlow-based control plane for spectrum sliced elastic optical path networks, called OpenSlice, for dynamic end-to-end path provisioning and IP traffic offloading. Experimental demonstration and numerical evaluation show its overall feasibility and efficiency.

Per-symbol-based digital back-propagation approach for PDM-CO-OFDM transmission systems.

For polarization-division-multiplexing coherent optical orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (PDM-CO-OFDM) systems, we propose a per-symbol-based digital back-propagation (DBP) approach which, after cyclic prefix removal, conducts DBP for each OFDM symbol. Compared with previous DBP, this new proposal avoids the use of inefficient overlap-and-add operation and saves one fast Fourier transform (FFT) module, therefore simplifying the hardware implementation. Transmitting a 16-QAM, 42.8-Gb/s PDM-CO-OFDM signal over 960-km standard single mode fiber (SSMF), we compare the previous and the proposed DBP approaches with different receiver's sampling rates and different step lengths in each DBP iteration, and found that the proposed DBP can achieve a similar performance as that of the previous DBP while enjoying a simpler implementation. We have also specifically introduced a small self-phase modulation (SPM) model for DBP and demonstrated its feasibility with the same experimental setup.