Switching and multiplexing technologies for mode-division multiplexed networks

These are the results of this paper. Mode-multiplexing over multimode fibers has the potential to scale WDM networks by a factor of 10 or more. Multimode components like wavelength selective switches and optical amplifiers can scale to large number of modes. Wavelength selective switches, which are the basic building block for WDM network can be extended to support multimode fibers. Spatial-diversity multimode WSSs can provide performance comparable to single-mode devices. The WSS switching capacity can be dramatically increased by using “interleaved Joint switching”. Free space multimode WSSs offer a simple optical design with increased switching capacity.