Temporal Stability of a Transparent Mode Group Diversity Multiplexing Link

The temporal behavior of a mode group diversity multiplexing (MGDM) link is examined. MGDM has been proposed as a way of creating parallel, independent communication channels over multimode fiber (MMF) links using different groups of modes. When the effect of dispersion can be neglected, the output electrical signals of an MGDM link are related to the input ones via a real-valued transmission matrix. The transmission matrix is vulnerable to changes in the modal spectrum of the propagating mode groups as well as to the coupling of light at the input and output of the MMF. Measurements of the transmission matrix of a two-input two-output system over 12.7 h show that an MGDM link can be very stable