Low-Complexity Multi-Task Learning Aided Neural Networks for Equalization in Short-Reach Optical Interconnects

With the rapid development of machine learning technologies in recent years, different types of neural network (NN)-based equalizers have been proposed and proved to be efficient digital signal processing tools to deal with the nonlinear impairments in short-reach direct detection optical interconnects. However, one major concern for these NN-based equalizers is their computational complexity (CC), since only a few tens of multiplications per symbol can be practically handled considering real-time implementation. In this paper, we propose an NN-based multi-symbol equalization scheme inspired by multi-task learning. Compared with traditional single-output NN-based equalizers, the CC can be significantly reduced with the help of the proposed scheme. A 50-Gb/s 25-km pulse amplitude modulation (PAM)-4 direct detection optical link is experimentally carried out and 3 different types of NNs, i.e., feedforward NN (FNN), cascade FNN (C-FNN), and recurrent NN (RNN), are employed for the proposed multi-symbol equalization scheme. Experimental results show that a maximum CC reduction of 43.2%/41.1%/44.0% can be achieved with FNN/C-FNN/RNN-based multi-symbol equalization to achieve their best performance, compared with the corresponding single-output NNs. The best performance of the proposed and the traditional FNN/C-FNN-based schemes are the same, while the RNN-based scheme sacrifices a slight system performance. Aided by multi-symbol equalization, the CC needed to recover 1 symbol for various NNs can all be reduced to about a few tens of multiplications, indicating the feasibility of real-time implementation of these NN-based equalizers.