Elliptical Core Few Mode Fibers for Multiple-Input Multiple Output-free Space Division Multiplexing Transmission

We experimentally demonstrate space division multiplexed data transmission using the LP01, LP11a and LP11b modes over a 1 km length of elliptical-core few mode fiber (EC-FMF) at 1550 nm using 10 Gbit/s on-off keying data per spatial channel. Space division multiplexed transmission without the use of any multiple- input multiple output (MIMO) digital signal processing showed no power penalty relative to the single-mode or the back to back cases.