Ultrafast and Wideband Microwave Photonic Frequency-Hopping Systems: A Review

Abstract

The increasing demands to enhance information security in data transmission, providing countermeasures against jamming in military applications, as well as boosting data capacity in mobile and satellite communication, have led to a critical need for high-speed frequency-hopping systems. Conventional electronics-based frequency-hopping systems suffer from low data rate, low hopping speed, and narrow hopping-frequency bandwidth. Unfortunately, those are important aspects to facilitate frequency-hopping in emerging microwave systems. The recent advancement of microwave photonics—the use of light to process microwave signals—provides promising solutions to tackle the challenges faced by electronic frequency-hopping systems. In this paper, the challenges of achieving real-time frequency-hopping systems are examined. The operation principles and results of various microwave photonics-enabled frequency-hopping systems are comprehensively discussed, which have wide hopping-frequency bandwidth and frequency-hopping speed from nanoseconds to tens of picoseconds. Lastly, a bio-inspired jamming-avoidance system that could potentially be used for adaptive frequency-hopping is also introduced.