Quantum information processing with space-division multiplexing optical fibres

The optical fibre is an essential tool for our communication infrastructure since it is the main transmission channel for optical communications. The latest major advance in optical fibre technology is spatial division multiplexing (SDM), where new fibre designs and components establish multiple co-existing data channels based on light propagation over distinct transverse optical modes. Simultaneously, there have been many recent developments in the field of quantum information processing (QIP), with novel protocols and devices in areas such as computing, communication and metrology. Here, we review recent works implementing QIP protocols with SDM optical fibres, and discuss new possibilities for manipulating quantum systems based on this technology.Comment: Originally submitted version. Please see published version for improved layout, new tables and updated references following review proces

Field-Trial of a high-budget, filterless, lambda-to-the-user, UDWDM-PON enabled by an innovative class of low-cost coherent transceivers

©2017 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.We experimentally demonstrate an innovative ultradense wavelength division multiplexing (UDWDM) passive optical networks (PON) that implements the full ¿-to-the-user concept in a filterless distribution network. Key element of the proposed system is a novel class of coherent transceivers, purposely developed with a nonconventional technical approach. Indeed, they are designed and realized to avoid D/A-A/D converter stages and digital signal processing in favor of simple analog processing so that they match system, cost, and power consumption requirements of the access networks without sacrificing the overall performance. These coherent transceivers target different use case scenarios (residential, business, fixed, wireless) still keeping perfect compatibility and co-existence with legacy infrastructures installed to support gray, time division multiplexed PON systems. Moreover, the availability of coherent transceivers of different cost/performance ratios allows for deployments of different quality service grades. In this paper, we report the successful field trial of the proposed systems in a testbed where 14 UDWDM channels (and one legacy E-PON system) are transmitted simultaneously in a dark-fiber network deployed in the city of Pisa (Italy), delivering real-time and/or test traffic. The trial demonstrated filterless operations (each remote node selects individually its own UDWDM channel on a fine 6.25-GHz grid), real-time GbE transmissions (by using either fully analog or light digital signal processing), multirate transmission (1.25 and 10 Gb/s), high optical distribution network loss (18-40 dB) as well as a bidirectional channel monitoring system.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Principles of Neuromorphic Photonics

In an age overrun with information, the ability to process reams of data has become crucial. The demand for data will continue to grow as smart gadgets multiply and become increasingly integrated into our daily lives. Next-generation industries in artificial intelligence services and high-performance computing are so far supported by microelectronic platforms. These data-intensive enterprises rely on continual improvements in hardware. Their prospects are running up against a stark reality: conventional one-size-fits-all solutions offered by digital electronics can no longer satisfy this need, as Moore's law (exponential hardware scaling), interconnection density, and the von Neumann architecture reach their limits. With its superior speed and reconfigurability, analog photonics can provide some relief to these problems; however, complex applications of analog photonics have remained largely unexplored due to the absence of a robust photonic integration industry. Recently, the landscape for commercially-manufacturable photonic chips has been changing rapidly and now promises to achieve economies of scale previously enjoyed solely by microelectronics. The scientific community has set out to build bridges between the domains of photonic device physics and neural networks, giving rise to the field of \emph{neuromorphic photonics}. This article reviews the recent progress in integrated neuromorphic photonics. We provide an overview of neuromorphic computing, discuss the associated technology (microelectronic and photonic) platforms and compare their metric performance. We discuss photonic neural network approaches and challenges for integrated neuromorphic photonic processors while providing an in-depth description of photonic neurons and a candidate interconnection architecture. We conclude with a future outlook of neuro-inspired photonic processing.Comment: 28 pages, 19 figure

Spatial-spectral flexible optical networking:enabling switching solutions for a simplified and efficient SDM network platform

The traffic carried by core optical networks grows at a steady but remarkable pace of 30-40% year-over-year. Optical transmissions and networking advancements continue to satisfy the traffic requirements by delivering the content over the network infrastructure in a cost and energy efficient manner. Such core optical networks serve the information traffic demands in a dynamic way, in response to requirements for shifting of traffics demands, both temporally (day/night) and spatially (business district/residential). However as we are approaching fundamental spectral efficiency limits of singlemode fibers, the scientific community is pursuing recently the development of an innovative, all-optical network architecture introducing the spatial degree of freedom when designing/operating future transport networks. Spacedivision- multiplexing through the use of bundled single mode fibers, and/or multi-core fibers and/or few-mode fibers can offer up to 100-fold capacity increase in future optical networks. The EU INSPACE project is working on the development of a complete spatial-spectral flexible optical networking solution, offering the network ultra-high capacity, flexibility and energy efficiency required to meet the challenges of delivering exponentially growing traffic demands in the internet over the next twenty years. In this paper we will present the motivation and main research activities of the INSPACE consortium towards the realization of the overall project solution

Enabling Technologies for Optical Data Center Networks: Spatial Division Multiplexing

With the continuously growing popularity of cloud services, the traffic volume inside the\ua0data\ua0centers is dramatically increasing. As a result, a scalable and efficient infrastructure\ua0for\ua0data\ua0center\ua0networks\ua0(DCNs) is required. The current\ua0optical\ua0DCNs using either individual fibers or fiber ribbons are costly, bulky, hard to manage, and not scalable.\ua0Spatial\ua0division\ua0multiplexing\ua0(SDM) based on multicore or multimode (few-mode) fibers is recognized as a promising technology to increase the\ua0spatial\ua0efficiency\ua0for\ua0optical\ua0DCNs, which opens a new way towards high capacity and scalability. This tutorial provides an overview of the components, transmission options, and interconnect architectures\ua0for\ua0SDM-based DCNs, as well as potential technical challenges and future directions. It also covers the co-existence of SDM and other\ua0multiplexing\ua0techniques, such as wavelength-division\ua0multiplexing\ua0and flexible spectrum\ua0multiplexing, in\ua0optical\ua0DCNs

Phase-coherent lightwave communications with frequency combs

Fiber-optical networks are a crucial telecommunication infrastructure in society. Wavelength division multiplexing allows for transmitting parallel data streams over the fiber bandwidth, and coherent detection enables the use of sophisticated modulation formats and electronic compensation of signal impairments. In the future, optical frequency combs may replace multiple lasers used for the different wavelength channels. We demonstrate two novel signal processing schemes that take advantage of the broadband phase coherence of optical frequency combs. This approach allows for a more efficient estimation and compensation of optical phase noise in coherent communication systems, which can significantly simplify the signal processing or increase the transmission performance. With further advances in space division multiplexing and chip-scale frequency comb sources, these findings pave the way for compact energy-efficient optical transceivers.Comment: 17 pages, 9 figure

Benchmarking and viability assessment of optical packet switching for metro networks

Optical packet switching (OPS) has been proposed as a strong candidate for future metro networks. This paper assesses the viability of an OPS-based ring architecture as proposed within the research project DAVID (Data And Voice Integration on DWDM), funded by the European Commission through the Information Society Technologies (IST) framework. Its feasibility is discussed from a physical-layer point of view, and its limitations in size are explored. Through dimensioning studies, we show that the proposed OPS architecture is competitive with respect to alternative metropolitan area network (MAN) approaches, including synchronous digital hierarchy, resilient packet rings (RPR), and star-based Ethernet. Finally, the proposed OPS architectures are discussed from a logical performance point of view, and a high-quality scheduling algorithm to control the packet-switching operations in the rings is explained

Parallel convolution processing using an integrated photonic tensor core

With the proliferation of ultra-high-speed mobile networks and internet-connected devices, along with the rise of artificial intelligence, the world is generating exponentially increasing amounts of data - data that needs to be processed in a fast, efficient and smart way. These developments are pushing the limits of existing computing paradigms, and highly parallelized, fast and scalable hardware concepts are becoming progressively more important. Here, we demonstrate a computational specific integrated photonic tensor core - the optical analog of an ASIC-capable of operating at Tera-Multiply-Accumulate per second (TMAC/s) speeds. The photonic core achieves parallelized photonic in-memory computing using phase-change memory arrays and photonic chip-based optical frequency combs (soliton microcombs). The computation is reduced to measuring the optical transmission of reconfigurable and non-resonant passive components and can operate at a bandwidth exceeding 14 GHz, limited only by the speed of the modulators and photodetectors. Given recent advances in hybrid integration of soliton microcombs at microwave line rates, ultra-low loss silicon nitride waveguides, and high speed on-chip detectors and modulators, our approach provides a path towards full CMOS wafer-scale integration of the photonic tensor core. While we focus on convolution processing, more generally our results indicate the major potential of integrated photonics for parallel, fast, and efficient computational hardware in demanding AI applications such as autonomous driving, live video processing, and next generation cloud computing services