A sparse reconfigurable adaptive filter based on a photonic switch

A nonblocking photonic switch can be used to implement a tapped delay line with a large number of coefficients and a wide range of time delays. In this paper, we present a sparse reconfigurable adaptive filter (SRAF) based on a photonic switch with an input/output connection architecture that can be represented by a matrix of adaptive weights. This unique parallel structure can be reconfigured in an adaptive manner to implement a sparse filter impulse response for a variety of applications. The appropriate choice of time delays is determined from a cross-correlation function between the filter input and a desired response signal that depends on the particular application. A computer simulation example illustrates the performance of the algorithm for modeling a bandpass filter characteristic.