Wideband photonic interference cancellation based on free space optical communication

Abstract: We propose and experimentally demonstrate an interference management system that removes wideband wireless interference by using photonic signal processing and free space optical communication. The receiver separates radio frequency interferences by upconverting the mixed signals to optical frequencies and processing the signals with the photonic circuits. Signals with GHz bandwidth are processed and separated in real-time. The reference signals for interference cancellation are transmitted in a free space optical communication link, which provides large bandwidth for multi-band operation and accelerates the mixed signal separation process by reducing the dimensions of the un-known mixing matrix. Experimental results show that the system achieves 30dB real-time cancellation depth with over 6GHz bandwidth. Multiple radio frequency bands can be processed at the same time with a single system. In addition, multiple radio frequency bands can be processed at the same time with a single system.