Resumen
ERC Grant
Next generation global telecomnunication paradigms vill require entirely new technologies to address the current
limitations to massive capacity and connectivity. A full integration between optical fibre and wireless networks
will be the key for the upcoming multigigabit-per-second 50 wireless comunications and the era of lnternet of
Things. Microwave Photonics (MWP) is the multidisciplinary technology to achieve such a convergence. There is
one revolutionary approach that has however been left untapped in finding innovative ways to increase the end user
capacity and provide adaptive radiofrequency-photonic interfaces: exploiting space - the last available degree of
freedotn for optical multiplexing. Space-Division multiplexing (SDM) has been recently touted as a solution for the
capacity bottleneck in digital conununications by establishing independent light paths in a single fibre. My pioneering
idea is to develop a novel area of application for SDM by exploiting for the fírst time its inherent parallelism to
implement a broadband tuneable true time delay line for radiofrequency signals, which is the basis of multiple MWP
functionalities. Within this project I envision an unprecedented revolution in fibre-wireless communications through
the powerful concept of SDM that will lead to unique processing capabilities as well as to a reduction of size, weight
and power consumption.
