optical core.
5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the tubular optical core is a multi-mode optical
core at a wavelength in one of the C band, the L band, and the S band of optical
telecommunications.
6 . An apparatus comprising:
an optical communication device having one of an optical transmitter with a
plurality of optical data modulators and an optical receiver with a plurality of optical data
demodulators; and
a sequence of one or more spans of optical fiber, the sequence being optically
connected at one end to the optical transmitter or receiver; and
wherein each optical fiber of the sequence has three or more optical cores, each
optical core is able to support a number of propagating optical modes at
telecommunications wavelengths, and each number is less than or equal to fifty.
7 . The apparatus of claim 6, wherein each optical data modulator or data demodulator
of the optical communication device end connects to a corresponding one of the optical
cores.
8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein each optical data modulator or data demodulator
is configured to communicate, in parallel, via a plurality of different sets of the propagating
optical modes of the corresponding one of the optical cores.
9 . The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the communication device is configured to
compensate for optical crosstalk on the individual optical cores without compensating for
optical crosstalk between the optical cores.
10. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein one of the optical cores of the three or more
optical cores is a tubular optical core.