PHOTONIC COMPUTING SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SIGNAL PROCESSING

Matrix multiplication is performed using a photonic computing block. Matrices are preprocessed to derive representative positive, real-valued matrices. The representative matrices are multiplied using a photonic computing block in which elements of a first matrix are encoded as a signal intensity and elements of a second matrix are encoded by tuning a spectral filter to apply a corresponding weight coefficient. Pairwise multiplications of matrix elements are performed by processing different wavelength components of an overall optical signal. A balanced photodiode receives the different wavelength components following manipulation in order to complete the multiplication. A matrix multiplication can be partitioned to fit a photonic computing block. The partitions are processed in parallel by multiple photonic computing blocks then reassembled into a final matrix. The multiplication operation can be part of a matrix inversion operation. Applications include (massive) multiple input multiple output (MIMO) precoding and detection, beamforming and other wireless communication applications.