Biomimetic photonics: jamming avoidance system in Eigenmannia

Opt Express. 2018 May 14;26(10):13349-13360. doi: 10.1364/OE.26.013349.

Abstract

Biomimetic photonics extract the good design of nature and mimic it with photonics. The weakly electric fish genus, Eigenmannia, has a unique neural algorithm - jamming avoidance response, to facilitate their survival in the deep dark ocean, by automatically adjusts the local transmitter carrier frequency to move away from the jamming frequency when it is within the jamming spectral range. Examining our own wireless microwave systems, the situation of inadvertent jamming is very similar as that in Eigenmannia. In this article, a biomimetic photonic approach inspired by the jamming avoidance response in a weakly electric fish genus, Eigenmannia, is naturally adopted to experimentally tackle signal jamming in wireless systems. Mimicking the system with photonics enables the proposed scheme to work for frequencies from hundreds of MHz to tens of GHz.

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Avoidance Learning / physiology*
  • Biomimetics
  • Electric Organ / physiology*
  • Gymnotiformes / physiology*
  • Neurons, Afferent / physiology
  • Optics and Photonics