Modeling weakly coupled homogeneous multicore fibers within an SDM simulation environment

Abstract:
Here, we report the modeling results for 7-core weakly-coupled homogeneous fibers designed and manufactured in the SAMOA-NET (Spatial Multiplexing in Optical Access Networks) project. We use mode solvers to find the characteristics of the fiber cores: mode field diameter and effective area, chromatic dispersion, bending loss, cut-off wavelength, and coupling coefficients between the cores. Such characteristics are a fiber model's input parameters that simulate the propagation effects. We selected the phase-matching-points (PMP) approach to simulate the crosstalk between the fiber cores. This approach is computationally effective, and preserves signal waveform and phase information. For this reason, it was possible to combine the PMP model with the models of chromatic dispersion, nonlinearity, inter-core skew, and PMD. We integrated a complete fiber model into our simulation platform with models of lasers, couplers, DSP, and error rate estimators.