Reconfigurable Multi-Beam Receiver Based on Microwave Photonics Technology

Abstract

A novel multi-beam photonic receiver with a variable beam count has been proposed. The reconfigurable characteristic of the system is enabled with the variable splitters and optical switch arrays. According to the number of beams it is due to receive, the splitter with suitable ports is chosen to split by controlling the optical switch in order to configure the optical path. After splitting, the multi-wavelength optical carriers are sent to the wavelength division multiplexer to combine and complete the multi-beamforming process. Two structures have been designed to realize the reconfigurable function, while the optimized structure is proved by using several benchmarks for comparison. The operation step of the reconfigurable multi-beam receiver is then given. The first simulations validate that the proposed architecture can dynamically receive the multi-beam with a variable number by reconfiguring the state of the optical switch. The second simulation of the influence on the received beam pattern was performed under a different amplitude and phase inconsistency random values. The results show that the amplitude and phase inconsistency will decline the quality of the multi-beam. When the amplitude and phase inconsistency are within limits, the difference in the optical path within the outputs must be balanced and compensated during the proposed system’s fabrication and deployment.