Advanced coding techniques for few mode transmission systems.

We experimentally verify the advantage of employing advanced coding schemes such as space-time coding and 4 dimensional modulation formats to enhance the transmission performance of a 3-mode transmission system. The performance gain of space-time block codes for extending the optical signal-to-noise ratio tolerance in multiple-input multiple-output optical coherent spatial division multiplexing transmission systems with respect to single-mode transmission performance are evaluated. By exploiting the spatial diversity that few-mode-fibers offer, with respect to single mode fiber back-to-back performance, significant OSNR gains of 3.2, 4.1, 4.9, and 6.8 dB at the hard-decision forward error correcting limit are demonstrated for DP-QPSK 8, 16 and 32 QAM, respectively. Furthermore, by employing 4D constellations, 6 × 28Gbaud 128 set partitioned quadrature amplitude modulation is shown to outperform conventional 8 QAM transmission performance, whilst carrying an additional 0.5 bit/symbol.