IOF Proof Of Concept: Demonstrator of an 8-channel space-division-multiplexing optical data link based on speckle

Data transmission using optical fibers forms the backbone of communication in the
current ICT society. The explosive growth in telecommunication demands has asked
for the development of techniques that offer ever higher data capacity. Therefore,
there has been extensive research in the past few years on how to exploit the spatial
degree of freedom in a single fiber. This has led to the development of space division
multiplexing (SDM) using specialty fibers, in which multiple cores and/or a waveguide
structures that supports a few transverse modes are used and where each core/mode
carries an optical data signal.