Computing and communications for the software-defined metamaterial paradigm: a context analysis

Metamaterials are artificial structures that have recently enabled the realization of novel electromagnetic components with engineered and even unnatural functionalities. Existing metamaterials are specifically designed for a single application working under preset conditions (e.g., electromagnetic cloaking for a fixed angle of incidence) and cannot be reused. Software-defined metamaterials (SDMs) are a much sought-after paradigm shift, exhibiting electromagnetic properties that can be reconfigured at runtime using a set of software primitives. To enable this new technology, SDMs require the integration of a network of controllers within the structure of the metamaterial, where each controller interacts locally and communicates globally to obtain the programmed behavior. The design approach for such controllers and the interconnection network, however, remains unclear due to the unique combination of constraints and requirements of the scenario. To bridge this gap, this paper aims to provide a context analysis from the computation and communication perspectives. Then, analogies are drawn between the SDM scenario and other applications both at the micro and nano scales, identifying possible candidates for the implementation of the controllers and the intra-SDM network. Finally, the main challenges of SDMs related to computing and communications are outlined.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Roadmap of optical communications

© 2016 IOP Publishing Ltd. Lightwave communications is a necessity for the information age. Optical links provide enormous bandwidth, and the optical fiber is the only medium that can meet the modern society's needs for transporting massive amounts of data over long distances. Applications range from global high-capacity networks, which constitute the backbone of the internet, to the massively parallel interconnects that provide data connectivity inside datacenters and supercomputers. Optical communications is a diverse and rapidly changing field, where experts in photonics, communications, electronics, and signal processing work side by side to meet the ever-increasing demands for higher capacity, lower cost, and lower energy consumption, while adapting the system design to novel services and technologies. Due to the interdisciplinary nature of this rich research field, Journal of Optics has invited 16 researchers, each a world-leading expert in their respective subfields, to contribute a section to this invited review article, summarizing their views on state-of-the-art and future developments in optical communications

Towards the Internet of Smart Trains: A Review on Industrial IoT-Connected Railways

[Abstract] Nowadays, the railway industry is in a position where it is able to exploit the opportunities created by the IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things) and enabling communication technologies under the paradigm of Internet of Trains. This review details the evolution of communication technologies since the deployment of GSM-R, describing the main alternatives and how railway requirements, specifications and recommendations have evolved over time. The advantages of the latest generation of broadband communication systems (e.g., LTE, 5G, IEEE 802.11ad) and the emergence of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) for the railway environment are also explained together with the strategic roadmap to ensure a smooth migration from GSM-R. Furthermore, this survey focuses on providing a holistic approach, identifying scenarios and architectures where railways could leverage better commercial IIoT capabilities. After reviewing the main industrial developments, short and medium-term IIoT-enabled services for smart railways are evaluated. Then, it is analyzed the latest research on predictive maintenance, smart infrastructure, advanced monitoring of assets, video surveillance systems, railway operations, Passenger and Freight Information Systems (PIS/FIS), train control systems, safety assurance, signaling systems, cyber security and energy efficiency. Overall, it can be stated that the aim of this article is to provide a detailed examination of the state-of-the-art of different technologies and services that will revolutionize the railway industry and will allow for confronting today challenges.Galicia. Consellería de Cultura, Educación e Ordenación Universitaria; ED431C 2016-045Galicia. Consellería de Cultura, Educación e Ordenación Universitaria; ED341D R2016/012Galicia. Consellería de Cultura, Educación e Ordenación Universitaria; ED431G/01Agencia Estatal de Investigación (España); TEC2013-47141-C4-1-RAgencia Estatal de Investigación (España); TEC2015-69648-REDCAgencia Estatal de Investigación (España); TEC2016-75067-C4-1-

Multigigabit multimedia processor for 60GHz WPAN: a hardware software codesign implementation

The emergence of a multitude of bandwidth hungry multimedia applications has ex- acerbated the need for multi-gigabit wireless solutions and made it out of the reach of conventional WLAN technology (802.11a, b and g). This thesis presents a system on chip which demonstrates the potential of 60GHz transceivers. This system is based on an FPGA board on which a GNU/Linux kernel has been run. This document will give some insight on the design process as well as on the finished product. Both the hardware and the software parts of the design are presented. This document is organized as follow. Chapter I presents an overview of the problem to be solved and some insight on the motivation to work at 60GHz. Chapter II gives a high level view of the multimedia processor that has been designed and implemented. Chapters III and IV respectively give more detail on the hardware parts and on the software components of the pro ject. Finally, Chapter V draws the conclusion of this work and presents the future of the work that has been started to enhance this multimedia processor.M.S.Committee Member: Chang, Gee-Kung; Committee Member: Hasler, Paul; Committee Member: Laskar, Jo

Next Generation Silicon Photonic Transceiver: From Device Innovation to System Analysis

Silicon photonics is recognized as a disruptive technology that has the potential to reshape many application areas, for example, data center communication, telecommunications, high-performance computing, and sensing. The key capability that silicon photonics offers is to leverage CMOS-style design, fabrication, and test infrastructure to build compact, energy-efficient, and high-performance integrated photonic systems-on- chip at low cost. As the need to squeeze more data into a given bandwidth and a given footprint increases, silicon photonics becomes more and more promising. This work develops and demonstrates novel devices, methodologies, and architectures to resolve the challenges facing the next-generation silicon photonic transceivers. The first part of this thesis focuses on the topology optimization of passive silicon photonic devices. Specifically, a novel device optimization methodology - particle swarm optimization in conjunction with 3D finite-difference time-domain (FDTD), has been proposed and proven to be an effective way to design a wide range of passive silicon photonic devices. We demonstrate a polarization rotator and a 90◦ optical hybrid for polarization-diversity and phase-diversity communications - two important schemes to increase the communication capacity by increasing the spectral efficiency. The second part of this thesis focuses on the design and characterization of the next- generation silicon photonic transceivers. We demonstrate a polarization-insensitive WDM receiver with an aggregate data rate of 160 Gb/s. This receiver adopts a novel architecture which effectively reduces the polarization-dependent loss. In addition, we demonstrate a III-V/silicon hybrid external cavity laser with a tuning range larger than 60 nm in the C-band on a silicon-on-insulator platform. A III-V semiconductor gain chip is hybridized into the silicon chip by edge-coupling to the silicon chip. The demonstrated packaging method requires only passive alignment and is thus suitable for high-volume production. We also demonstrate all silicon-photonics-based transmission of 34 Gbaud (272 Gb/s) dual-polarization 16-QAM using our integrated laser and silicon photonic coherent transceiver. The results show no additional penalty compared to commercially available narrow linewidth tunable lasers. The last part of this thesis focuses on the chip-scale optical interconnect and presents two different types of reconfigurable memory interconnects for multi-core many-memory computing systems. These reconfigurable interconnects can effectively alleviate the memory access issues, such as non-uniform memory access, and Network-on-Chip (NoC) hot-spots that plague the many-memory computing systems by dynamically directing the available memory bandwidth to the required memory interface

Development of Silicon Photonic Multi Chip Module Transceivers

The exponential growth of data generation–driven in part by the proliferation of applications such as high definition streaming, artificial intelligence, and the internet of things–presents an impending bottleneck for electrical interconnects to fulfill data center bandwidth demands. Links now require bandwidths in excess of multiple Tbps while operating on the order of picojoules per bit, in addition to constraints on areal bandwidth densities and pin I/O bandwidth densities. Optical communications built on a silicon photonic platform offers a potential solution to develop power efficient, high bandwidth, low attenuation, small footprint links, all while building off the mature CMOS ecosystem. The development of silicon photonic foundries supporting multi project wafer runs with associated process design kit components supports a path towards widespread commercial production by increasing production volume while reducing fabrication and development costs. While silicon photonics can always be improved in terms of performance and yield, one of the central challenges is the integration of the silicon photonic integrated circuits with the driving electronic integrated circuits and data generating compute nodes such as CPUs, FPGAs, and ASICs. The co-packaging of the photonics with the electronics is crucial for adoption of silicon photonics in datacenters, as improper integration negates all the potential benefits of silicon photonics. The work in this dissertation is centered around the development of silicon photonic multi chip module transceivers to aid in the deployment of silicon photonics within data centers. Section one focuses on silicon photonic integration and highlights multiple integrated transceiver prototypes. The central prototype features a photonic integrated circuit with bus waveguides with WDM microdisk modulators for the transmitter and WDM demuxes with drop ports to photodiodes for the receiver. The 2.5D integrated prototype utilizes a thinned silicon interposer and TIA electronic integrated circuits. The architecture, integration, characterization, performance, and scalability of the prototype are discussed. The development of this first prototype identified key design considerations necessary for designing multi chip module silicon photonic prototypes, which will be addressed in this section. Finally, other multi chip module silicon photonic prototypes will be overviewed. These include a 2.5D integrated transceiver with a different electronic integrated circuit TIA, a 3D integrated receiver, an active interposer network on chip, and a 2.5D integrated transceiver with custom electronic integrated circuits. Section two focuses on research that supports the development of silicon photonic transceivers. The thermal crosstalk from neighboring microdisk modulators as a function of modulator pitch is investigated. As modulators are placed at denser pitches to accommodate areal bandwidth density requirements in transceivers, this thermal crosstalk will become significant. In this section, designs and results from several iterations of custom microring modulators are reported. Custom microring modulators allow for scaling up the number of channels in microring transceivers by offering the ability to fabricate variable resonances and provide a platform for further innovation in bandwidth, free spectral range, and energy efficiency. The designs and results of higher order modulation format modulators, both microring based and Mach Zehnder based, are discussed. High order modulators offer a path towards scaling transceiver total throughput without having to increase the channel counts or component bandwidth. Together, the work in these two sections supports the development of silicon photonic transceivers to aid in the adoption of silicon photonics into data generating systems

Low-Power Pıc-Based Sensor Node Devıce Desıgn And Theoretıcal Analysıs Of Energy Consumptıon In Wıreless Sensor Networks

Teknolojinin ilerlemesi, daha enerji verimli ve daha ucuz elektronik bileşenlerinin daha küçük üretilmesini sağlamıştır. Bu nedenle, daha önce mevcut birçok bilgisayar ve elektronik bilim-mühendislik fikirleri uygulanabilir hale gelmiştir. Bunlardan birisi de kablosuz sensör ağları teknolojisidir. Kablosuz algılayıcı ağlar, düşük enerji tüketimi ve gerekli teknik gereksinimlerin gerçekleşmesi ile uygulanabilir hale gelmiştir. Ayrıca, Kablosuz algılayıcı ağlarının tasarımında iletişim algoritmaları, enerji tasarruf protokolleri ve yenilenebilir enerji teknolojileri gibi diğer bilimsel çalışmalar zorunlu hale gelmiştir. Bu tez, mikroelektronik sistemler, kablosuz iletişim ve dijital elektronik teknolojisinin ilerlemesiyle uygulanabilir hale gelmiş sensör ağları teknolojisini kapsamaktadır. Birincisi, algılama görevleri ve potansiyel algılayıcı ağ uygulamaları araştırılmış ve algılayıcı ağlarının tasarımını etkileyen faktörlerin gözden geçirilmesi sağlanmıştır. Ardından sensör ağları için iletişim mimarisi ana hatlarıyla belirtilmiştir. Ayrıca, tek bir düğümün WLAN ile iletişim kurabilmesi için yeni donanım mimarisi tasarlanmış ve düğümlerde yenilenebilir enerji kaynakları kullanılmıştır. Bu tezde WSN, analitik bilim ve uygulamalı bilim açısından incelenmiştir. Düşük enerji tüketimi ve iletişim protokolleri arasındaki ilişki değerlendirilmiş ve bilimsel sonuçlara varılmıştır. Teorik analizler bilimsel uygulamalarla desteklenmiştir. Çalışmalar, düşük enerji ve maksimum verimlilik prensibinin gerçekleştirilmesine dayalı kablosuz sensör ağları üzerinde gerçekleştirilmiştir. Kablosuz sensör ağlari sistemi tasarlandıktan sonra; sensör düğümlerinin enerji tüketimi ve kablosuz ağdaki davranışları test ve analiz edilmiştir. Düşük enerji tüketimi ile sensör düğümleri arasındaki ilişki detaylı olarak değerlendirilmiştir. PIC Tabanlı mikro denetleyiciler sensör düğümlerinin tasarımında kullanılmış ve çok düşük maliyetli tasarım için ultra düşük güçte, nanoWatt teknolojisi ile desteklenen sensör düğümleri tasarlanmıştır. İşleme birimi, bellek birimi ve kablosuz iletişim birimi sensör viii düğümlerine entegre edilmiştir. Tasarlanan sensör düğümünün işletim sistemi PIC C dili ile yazılmıştır ve PIC işletim sistemi nem, sıcaklık, ışığa duyarlılık ve duman sensörü gibi farklı özelliklerin ölçülmesine izin vermiştir. Sensörlerden gelen verilerin merkezi bir konumdan kaydedilmesi ve izlenebilmesi için, C# programlama dili ile bilgisayar yazılımı geliştirilmiştir. Gelişmiş algılayıcı düğümler tarafından alınan kararların uygulanması için yazılım algoritması ve donanım modüllerini içeren karar verme sistemi tasarlanmıştır. Gelişmiş PIC Tabanlı sensör düğümleri, enerji üretimi ve enerji tasarrufu için, güneş enerjisi paneli, şarj edilebilir pil ve süper kapasitör gibi yenilenebilir enerji kaynakları ile benzersiz bir PIC Kontrollü voltaj birimi ile desteklenmiştir. Geliştirilmiş kablosuz sensör ağları sistemi, endüstri uygulamaları, akıllı fabrikalar ve akıllı evler gibi günlük hayat uygulamaları için de kullanılabilecektir. Kablosuz algılayıcı ağlar geniş bir aralıkta kullanılmak üzere tasarlanmıştır. Tezin sonuçları, özellikle yenilenebilir enerji kaynakları ile WSN'nin geliştirilmesine yardımcı olmayı amaçlamaktadır

Photonic Integrated Semiconductor Optical Amplifier Switch Circuits

No abstract