The Multiband over Spatial Division Multiplexing Sliceable Transceiver for Future Optical Networks

In the last 15 years, global data traffic has been doubling approximately every 2–3 years, and there is a strong indication that this pattern will persist. Hence, also driven by the emergence of new applications and services expected within the 6G era, new transmission systems and technologies should be investigated to enhance network capacity and achieve increased bandwidth, improved spectral efficiency, and greater flexibility to effectively accommodate all the expected data traffic. In this paper, an innovative transmission solution based on multiband (MB) over spatial division multiplexing (SDM) sliceable bandwidth/bitrate variable transceiver (S-BVT) is implemented and assessed in relation to the provision of sustainable capacity scaling. MB transmission (S+C+L) over 25.4 km of 19-cores multicore fibre (MCF) is experimentally assessed and demonstrated achieving an aggregated capacity of 119.1 Gb/s at 4.62×10−3 bit error rate (BER). The proposed modular sliceable transceiver architecture arises as a suitable option towards achieving 500 Tb/s per fibre transmission, by further enabling more slices covering all the available S+C+L spectra and the 19 cores of the MCF.