Real-time demonstration of 103.125-Gbps fiber–THz–fiber 2 × 2 MIMO transparent transmission at 360–430 GHz based on photonics

In this Letter, we experimentally demonstrate the first real-time transparent fiber-THz-fiber 2 × 2 multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) transmission system with a record line rate of 125.516 Gbps at 360-430 GHz based on photonic remote heterodyning, hybrid optoelectronic down-conversion, and commercial digital coherent modules. The 103.125-Gbps net data rate using dual-polarization quadrature phase-shift keying (DP-QPSK) modulation is successfully transmitted over two spans of 20-km standard single-mode fiber (SSMF) and 60-cm wireless distance under 15% soft-decision forward error correction (SD-FEC) for a pre-FEC bit error ratio (BER) threshold of 1.56 × 10-2 (post-FEC BER < 10-15). The optical signal to noise ratio (OSNR) margin and the stability of the transmission system are extensively investigated. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time to realize >100-Gbps real-time transparent fiber-THz-fiber link transmission at beyond the 350-GHz band, making it a promising scheme to pave the way towards a practical seamless integration of a fiber-THz-fiber link to the future 6G mobile communication system.