Space-Division Multiplexing in Data Center Networks: On Multi-Core Fiber Solutions and Crosstalk-Suppressed Resource Allocation

Spatial Light Modulation as a Flexible Platform for Optical Systems

“…However, the growing demand for further video/image storage capacity and the increase in cloud service adoption, which is as a result of numerous smartphones and other Internet-based gadgets, have led to research on solutions for effective bandwidth optimization [11,12]. This is due to the fact that the conventional SMFbased transport systems have been observed to be approaching Shannon's limit [13] and the achievable maximum capacity will not be sufficient to support the envisaged massive connection demanded by the next-generation networks [5,[14][15][16]. Besides the capacity that is expected to be saturated around 100 Tbit/s owing to the physical limits, the conventional SMF schemes with WDM might be unable to meet the power consumption, spatial efficiency, and cost requirements of the communication systems [16,17].…”

“…A notable optical transport scheme that can exploit the space dimension in order to address the optical system capacity crunch and improve the system performance is spatial division multiplexing (SDM) [19]. Moreover, it has been observed that MCF is an efficient and main enabling technology for the SDM systems [16,18]. Apart from the MCF, SDM implementation for multimode fiber (MMF) has also been attracting significant attention [17,18].…”

“…Nevertheless, the MCF implementation is susceptible to and can be constrained by the transmission impairments such as nonlinearities and inter-core cross talk (XT) between signals at the neighboring cores that may be presented via multiple optical paths. This may have a significant effect on the system performance regarding the transmission range and the network size [16,17]. Furthermore, the extent of the presented performance degradation by the transmission impairments varies with the MCF fiber types (i.e., 3-core, 7-core, 13-core, 19-core, 37-core, and 61-core) [16,20].…”

“…This may have a significant effect on the system performance regarding the transmission range and the network size [16,17]. Furthermore, the extent of the presented performance degradation by the transmission impairments varies with the MCF fiber types (i.e., 3-core, 7-core, 13-core, 19-core, 37-core, and 61-core) [16,20]. A practical solution for addressing the MCF implementation challenges is spatial light modulation.…”

“…In addition, the use of silicon photonic (SiP) onboard transceivers that are coupled on the MCF for supporting transmissions has been shown to be promising. This is due to the fact that there is no need for fan-in/fan-out or core pitch conversion devices that may give rise to further system complexity [16].…”