Specialty fibers exploiting spatial multiplexing for signal processing in radio access networks

The addition of the spatial dimension to the portfolio of optical multiplexing technologies, widely known as Space-Division Multiplexing, has been touted as a solution for the capacity bottleneck in digital optical communications by establishing independent light paths in one single fiber. Boosted by the benefits brought in terms of compactness, flexibility and versatility, the growing interest on these novel fibers has recently opened up new avenues for research in emerging fields of application, such as radio access network distribution and radiofrequency signal processing. We present an overview of a variety of space-division multiplexing fibers specifically engineered in terms of group delay and chromatic dispersion to provide distributed signal processing for radiofrequency signals in converged fiber-wireless communications.