Space diversity for the multimode optical fiber channel

Multimode optical fiber links for local area networks have been challenged by the ever increasing demand for higher data rates. The understanding of their fundamental limits thus becomes crucial. Recent research results show that multimode optical fiber channels have much higher channel capacity from the information-theoretic point of view. A modulation method utilizing the space diversity of multimode optical fibers is introduced and studied in this paper. It asymptotically approaches the channel capacity promised by information theory. Experiments are also conducted to demonstrate the feasibility