Survey and Evaluation of Space Division Multiplexing: From Technologies to Optical Networks

Single-mode fiber's physical capacity boundaries will soon be reached; hence, alternative solutions are much needed to overcome the multiplying and remarkably large bandwidth requests. Space division multiplexing (SDM) using multicore fibers (MCFs), multielement fibers, multimode fibers, and their combination; few-mode MCFs; or fibers based on orbital angular momentum are considered to be the prop...