The LUMIRing project aims to deploy a multi-core fiber (MCF) test bed within Lisbon Metro’s Yellow Line — an ambitious and groundbreaking initiative to explore weakly coupled MCF transmission under real-world conditions. By leveraging the harsh mechanical stresses caused by metro operations in underground tunnels, the project offers a unique opportunity to investigate and address real-life transmission challenges.A core goal is to design, implement, and validate advanced techniques that both mitigate performance degradation and enable the integration of data transmission with sensing, pushing the limits of current MCF capabilities.The test bed’s main infrastructure includes a 12-tube cable, with each tube containing 12 fibers. The cable contains 74 standard cladding diameter WC-MCFs (of 5 different types, with 4 and 7 cores and with step and trench-assisted refractive index profiles) and 70 conventional single-mode single-core fibers (SSMF).

Multicore fiber Applications and TeCHnologies (MATCH) is a doctoral training network funded by the European Commission, under the MSCA Doctoral Networks 2023 | Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, and proposed by a multidisciplinary and intersectoral consortium of international experts.       - MATCH directs PhD research toward multicore fibre (MCF) technology;       - MATCH aims at developing leading solution for scaling future optical fibre communication networks towards emerging information capacities, while offering the potential to lower costs, reduce power consumption and significantly boost network capacity by over tenfold;       - MATCH programme outlines a comprehensive set of research and training objectives tailored to 13 doctoral candidates (DCs);       -The cohort of DCs will be hosted by 14 partners (10 from academia and 4 from the industrial sector);       - The planned training activities of DCs include 32 secondments, 7 mini-symposiums, 3 transferable skills workshops, summer schools, and tutorials, among others.    In MATCH program, DCs will acquire expertise in diverse areas, encompassing: (i) Design and fabrication of MCFs with transmission capacities surpassing the state-of-the-art; (ii) Design and implementation of MCF components and subsystems, with a focus on optical amplifiers and switches, multiple frequency comb sources, and parallel-scalable signal processing architectures; (iii) Development and implementation of machine learning techniques for end-to-end performance optimization of MCF networks; (iv) Design and evaluation of coexistence of telecom and non-telecom signals in MCF networks. By engaging the expertise of MATCH academic and industrial partners, DCs will acquire distinct skills and knowledge to transform them to globally-minded scientists and engineers, who will help to shape Europe’s ICT future and societal wellbeing.   For more information see: https://match.iscte-iul.pt/