Optimizing the Capacity of Standard Cladding Diameter Multicore Fiber Systems Using S, C, and L Bands

Spatial division multiplexing (SDM) systems based on uncoupled multicore fibers (MCFs) with a standard cladding diameter of 125 µm have been increasingly considered for field deployment [1], [2]. These MCFs are compatible with standard cabling systems and can achieve reliability similar to that of standard fibers [3]. However, in order to have acceptable crosstalk levels, these fibers are limited to 4-cores when operating in the C and/or L bands, which restricts their capacity when compared with higher core count MCFs [4]. A possible solution is to extend the transmission band to shorter wavelengths, exploiting the wavelength dependence of crosstalk in MCFs [1]. This is the case of an 8-core MCF with standard cladding diameter proposed in [5], which was designed to operate exclusively in the O-band, supporting data-center communications.