ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses results and future directions for designing integrated photonic broadcast-and-weight networks. It introduces a useful representation of multi-broadcast loop (BL) systems and their constraints. Multi-BL systems provide a potential route to tremendous scalability but require novel approaches intersecting photonic and neural networking. Architectural design rules and analysis of multi-BL systems are introduced. In ring networks, a common fiber or waveguide carries multiplexed signals as it traverses the set of nodes. Each node can tap a subset of all the signals and adds its own new signals. The transmission spectra of every processing-network node continue port along the BL will multiply together to affect the input powers of each channel. The multi-BL embedding is useful because it maps directly to multi-BL layout but removes spatial degrees of freedom, while also simplifying constraints. The competing tendencies of link sparsity and system complexity are shared between biology and multi-BL architectures.
