Modal Dispersion Performance of Mode Vector Modulation

Mode vector modulation (MVM) is a new spatial modulation scheme suitable for few-mode/multicore fibers or for multimode transmission in optical wireless links. When used in conjunction with direct-detection in short-haul optical links, MVM offers significantly higher sensitivity compared to M-ary pulse amplitude modulation (M-PAM).Since MVM uses several spatial and polarization modes simultaneously for transmission of a single data stream, modal effects in few-mode fibers, such as mode coupling and modal dispersion, are potentially of paramount importance and their impact on MVM system performance should be thoroughly understood.In this invited paper, we study by simulation, for the first time, the transmission of MVM through a few-mode fiber (FMF) with six spatial and polarization modes. We show that, by employing a suitable combination of optical and electronic equalization techniques, the impact of mode coupling and modal dispersion on MVM performance can be significantly reduced. Consequently, it is theoretically possible to replace multiple M-PAM tributaries transmitted in parallel over a fiber bundle with one MVM channel launched over a single FMF in order to decrease the bit SNR and the fiber count in future ultra-high-data-rate, direct-detection optical interconnects.