Analyzing Ultra-Low Inter-Core Crosstalk Fibers in Band and Space Division Multiplexing EONs

In the ultra-low inter-core crosstalk (UL-ICXT) working zone of terrestrial multi-band and multi-core fiber (MCF) elastic optical networks (EONs), the ICXT in all channels of all cores is lower than the ICXT threshold of the highest modulation format level (i.e., 64QAM) for long-haul distances (i.e., 10,000 km). This paper analyzes the performance of this type of MCF in multi-band EONs (MB-EONs). Two band and space division multiplexing (BSDM) scenarios are investigated: MCF and a bundle of multi-fiber pairs (BuMFP). Moreover, the performance of the UL-ICXT of two MCFs—one with the standard cladding diameter (CD = 125 µm) with 4 cores and another with a nonstandard larger CD with 7 cores—are evaluated in the US backbone network. Our findings show that by accurately designing the physical structure of the MCF, even with a standard CD, it is possible to achieve UL-ICXT in C+L+S-band long-haul BSDM EONs. Furthermore, the simulation results show that the network throughput for BSDM EONs with MCFs in the UL-ICXT regime is up to 12% higher than the BuMFP scenario. Additionally, capacity increases linearly with the number of cores.