Optical wireless may no longer have obstacles.
Study by the Polytechnic of Milan with the Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies in Pisa, and the University of Glasgow and Stanford, published in Nature Photonics
A study by the Polytechnic of Milan, conducted together with the Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies in Pisa, the University of Glasgow and the University of Stanford - published by the prestigious journal Nature Photonics - has made it possible to create some photonic chips which mathematically calculate the optimal shape of light to best pass through any environment, even unknown or changing over time.
The researchers point out that the problem is well known: light is sensitive to any form of obstacle, even very small ones. Let's think, they say, for example about how we see objects by looking through frosted glass or simply by wearing foggy glasses.
The effect, the scholars continue, is completely similar on a beam of light that carries data flows in optical wireless systems: the information, although still present, is completely distorted and extremely difficult to recover. The devices developed in this research are small silicon chips that work like intelligent transceivers: by cooperating in pairs they can automatically and autonomously 'calculate' what shape a light beam must have to cross a generic environment with maximum efficiency. Not only that, at the same time they can also generate many overlapping beams, each with its own shape, and direct them without interfering with each other; in this way it is possible to significantly increase the transmission capacity, just as required by new generation wireless systems.
“Our chips are mathematical processors that deal with light very quickly and efficiently, almost without consuming energy. The optical beams are generated through simple algebraic operations, essentially additions and multiplications, done directly on the light signals and are transmitted by microantennas integrated directly on the chips. The advantages of this technology are many: extreme simplicity of processing, high energy efficiency and enormous bandwidth, which exceeds 5000 GHz.” says Francesco Morichetti, Head of the Photonic Devices Lab at the Polytechnic of Milan.
“Today all information is digital, but in reality, images, sounds and all data are intrinsically analog. Digitalisation allows very complex processing, but as the volume of data grows these operations are becoming increasingly difficult to sustain from an energy and computational point of view. Today we are looking with great interest at a return to analogue technologies, through dedicated circuits (analogue coprocessors) which will be enabling for the 5G and 6G wireless interconnection systems of the future. Our chips work exactly like this” underlines Andrea Melloni, Director of Polifab, the micro and nanotechnology center of the Polytechnic of Milan.
Marc Sorel, Professor of Electronics at the TeCIP Institute (Telecommunications, Computer Engineering, and Photonics Institute) of the Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, finally adds that "analog calculation carried out with optical processors is crucial in numerous application scenarios which include mathematical accelerators for neuromorphic systems, high-performance computing (HPC) e artificial intelligence, quantum computers and cryptography, advanced localization, positioning and sensor systems, and in general all systems in which the processing of large quantities of data at very high speed is necessary”.
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