The University of L’Aquila, Sumitomo Electric Industries, and Optoscribe have deployed a testbed for multi-core fiber communications in the city of L’Aquila, in Italy.
The multi-core fiber (MCF) testbed, which uses space-division multiplexed (SDM) technology, is part of INCIPICT project.
An MCF is an optical fiber with multiple cores in a glass cladding.
For INCIPICT, Sumitomo Electric fabricated two types of uncoupled MCFs and one type of coupled MCFs with a standard glass diameter of 125 µm (details in the table). The standard glass diameter enabled the use of conventional optical fiber cable and connector technologies. The MCFs were cabled into conventional loose-tube jelly-filled cables widely used in Europe.
Optoscribe manufactured fan-in/fan-out (FIFO) devices for the conversion between MCFs and multiple standard single-mode fibers (SMFs). The MCF cable was installed in a microduct placed on INCIPICT’s rack in the walkable multi-service underground tunnel
The total length of the installed MCF cable is 6.3 km, of which 5.6 km in the tunnel and 0.7 km in the laboratory that gives access to the fibers. The optical properties of the MCFs were evaluated before and after the installation, and no significant degradations due to the installation were observed.
