High performance bio-inspired analog equalizer for DVB-S2 non-linear communication channel

To ensure a high signal-to-noise power ratio at the terrestrial receiver, the power amplifier aboard the satellite often works close to its saturation point. Unfortunately, this operating point also adds non-linear distortions in the communication channel. The literature proposes several digital equalizers to compensate for this channel. But their complexity makes their digital implementation difficult in particular for high bandwidth communications. Analog equalizers are an interesting solution to reduce the equalizer complexity. Here we numerically demonstrate that a dedicated analog optoelectronic implementation based on the Echo State Network paradigm can reach state-of-the-art performance of digital equalizers, while reducing the required resolution of the analog-to-digital converters.