Editorial - Special Issue on Photonics Technology for Space Division Multiplexing

The IEEE Photonics Society´s 2012 Summer Topical Meeting on Space Division Multiplexing for Optical Systems and Networks was the first international conference dedicated to SDM. The meeting covered the spectrum of topics in the field, ranging from the basics of multimode signal propagation in fibers, through fiber design, fabrication, enabling devices and signal processing, to its application and potential for commercial realization in networks of differing reach and scale. All authors of SDM Summer Topical papers were encouraged to submit an extended manuscript of the work presented (contributed, invited, or tutorial) to this Special Issue on Space Division Multiplexing. This is the first Special Issue to be published in IEEE Photonics Technology Letters. The Special Issue highlights recent progress on SDM and provides authors the opportunity to publish their work in an archival journal with a long-standing tradition of high visibility for optical communications research. Authors were encouraged to utilize the recently increased four-page limit of PTL to include additional content beyond that presented at the Summer Topical Meeting, and submissions were subjected to the standard PTL review process. The 20 papers in this Special Issue cover the full range of topics from the Summer Topical Meeting.