Coherent 1200-km 6×6 MIMO mode-multiplexed transmission over 3-core microstructured fiber

We experimentally demonstrate transmission of 6 mode-multiplexed 20-Gbd-QPSK signals over 1200 km of three-core microstructured fiber (3C-MSF). An aggregate single-wavelength capacity of 240 Gbit/s is recovered by off-line 6×6 coherent multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) digital signal processing.