Real-Time Blind Photonic Interference Cancellation for mmWave MIMO

Abstract: Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) mmWave devices broadcast multiple spatially-separated data streams simultaneously in order to increase data transfer rates. Data transfer can, however, be compromised by interference. Conventional techniques for mitigating interference require additional space and power not generally available in handheld mobile devices. Here, we propose a photonic mmWave MIMO receiver architecture capable of interference cancellation with greatly reduced space and power needs. We demonstrate real-time photonic interference cancellation with an integrated FPGA-photonic system that executes a novel zero-calibration micro-ring resonator control algorithm. The system achieves sub-second cancellation weight determination latency with sub-Nyquist sampling. We evaluate the impact of canceller design parameters on performance, establishing that effective photonic cancellation is possible in handheld devices with less than 30 ms weight determination latency.