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An optical fiber network oracle for NP-complete problems

An optical fiber network oracle for NP-complete problems
An optical fiber network oracle for NP-complete problems
The modern information society is enabled by photonic fiber networks of huge coverage and complexity, from transcontinental submarine telecommunication cables to fiber to the home local segments. This world-wide network has yet to match the complexity of human brain containing a hundred billion neurons, with thousands synaptic connections each in average, but already exceeds the complexity of brains of primitive organisms, such as honey bee containing about one million neurons. With this paper we bring about a discussion on the computing potential of optical networks as information carriers. Using a simple fiber network we provide a proof-of-principle demonstration that it can be seen as an optical oracle for the Hamiltonian path problem, the famous mathematical complexity problem of finding if a map can be travelled so that each town is visited once only. Pronouncement of a Hamiltonian path is made by monitoring the delay of the optical pulse interrogating the network, which shall be equal to the sum of travel times visiting all the nodes (towns). We argue that the optical oracle could solve this NP-complete problem hundreds times faster than brute-force computing, discuss its secure communication applications, and propose possible implementation in silicon photonics and plasmonic networks.
e147
Wu, Kan
2257a2a5-e70b-461d-8ae5-31b98ef572e5
García de Abajo, F.Javier
07e3df24-ab3b-4a70-af18-188db066aa1a
Soci, Cesare
6c86324e-2968-4e90-9436-4a92a4b26cec
Ping Shum, Perry
2b73ff2c-315f-4860-8c9a-6a2dd424d51b
Zheludev, Nikolay I.
32fb6af7-97e4-4d11-bca6-805745e40cc6
Wu, Kan
2257a2a5-e70b-461d-8ae5-31b98ef572e5
García de Abajo, F.Javier
07e3df24-ab3b-4a70-af18-188db066aa1a
Soci, Cesare
6c86324e-2968-4e90-9436-4a92a4b26cec
Ping Shum, Perry
2b73ff2c-315f-4860-8c9a-6a2dd424d51b
Zheludev, Nikolay I.
32fb6af7-97e4-4d11-bca6-805745e40cc6

Wu, Kan, García de Abajo, F.Javier, Soci, Cesare, Ping Shum, Perry and Zheludev, Nikolay I. (2014) An optical fiber network oracle for NP-complete problems. Light: Science & Applications, 3 (2), e147. (doi:10.1038/lsa.2014.28).

Record type: Article

Abstract

The modern information society is enabled by photonic fiber networks of huge coverage and complexity, from transcontinental submarine telecommunication cables to fiber to the home local segments. This world-wide network has yet to match the complexity of human brain containing a hundred billion neurons, with thousands synaptic connections each in average, but already exceeds the complexity of brains of primitive organisms, such as honey bee containing about one million neurons. With this paper we bring about a discussion on the computing potential of optical networks as information carriers. Using a simple fiber network we provide a proof-of-principle demonstration that it can be seen as an optical oracle for the Hamiltonian path problem, the famous mathematical complexity problem of finding if a map can be travelled so that each town is visited once only. Pronouncement of a Hamiltonian path is made by monitoring the delay of the optical pulse interrogating the network, which shall be equal to the sum of travel times visiting all the nodes (towns). We argue that the optical oracle could solve this NP-complete problem hundreds times faster than brute-force computing, discuss its secure communication applications, and propose possible implementation in silicon photonics and plasmonic networks.

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lsa201428 - Version of Record
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Published date: 28 February 2014
Organisations: Optoelectronics Research Centre

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Local EPrints ID: 364176
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/364176
PURE UUID: 3a2e8d51-2e08-42a4-8a62-0388d6a2a84f
ORCID for Nikolay I. Zheludev: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-1013-6636

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Date deposited: 08 Apr 2014 10:09
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 02:44

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Contributors

Author: Kan Wu
Author: F.Javier García de Abajo
Author: Cesare Soci
Author: Perry Ping Shum

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