학술논문

Spiking Neural Network Nonlinear Demapping on Neuromorphic Hardware for IM/DD Optical Communication
Document Type
Periodical
Source
Journal of Lightwave Technology J. Lightwave Technol. Lightwave Technology, Journal of. 41(11):3424-3431 Jun, 2023
Subject
Communication, Networking and Broadcast Technologies
Photonics and Electrooptics
Hardware
Neurons
Software
Equalizers
Nonlinear optics
Optical fiber dispersion
Adaptive optics
Data centers
equalization
intensity-modulation direct-detection
optical communication
spiking neural network
Language
ISSN
0733-8724
1558-2213
Abstract
Neuromorphic computing implementing spiking neural networks (SNN) is a promising technology for reducing the footprint of optical transceivers, as required by the fast-paced growth of data center traffic. In this work, an SNN nonlinear demapper is designed and evaluated on a simulated intensity-modulation direct-detection link with chromatic dispersion. The SNN demapper is implemented in software and on the analog neuromorphic hardware system BrainScaleS-2 (BSS-2). For comparison, linear equalization (LE), Volterra nonlinear equalization (VNLE), and nonlinear demapping by an artificial neural network (ANN) implemented in software are considered. At a pre-forward error correction bit error rate of $2 \times 10^{-3}$, the software SNN outperforms LE by 1.5 dB, VNLE by 0.3 dB and the ANN by 0.5 dB. The hardware penalty of the SNN on BSS-2 is only 0.2 dB, i.e., also on hardware, the SNN performs better than all software implementations of the reference approaches. Hence, this work demonstrates that SNN demappers implemented on electrical analog hardware can realize powerful and accurate signal processing fulfilling the strict requirements of optical communications.